Rice, a principal cereal crop often regarded as a staple food, plays a vital role in the agricultural economy of western Odisha. Cultivation of rice needs various forms of material and energy inputs making it a resource-intensive process and hence its environmental consequences are becoming increasingly significant. Consequently, finding the right strategies and solutions to improve sustainability has become essential. The right scientific tools and credible data is required for as-sessing the sustainability by evaluating the environmental burden associated with rice cultivation. Environmental impact assessment can be performed by various methods, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one such approach that is widely used. LCA provides intricate details in the cultivation process, which are generally overlooked during most studies. This study reviews sustainability studies conducted using LCA to examine the environmental impacts of rice cultivation with a focus on impacts due to inputs, outputs and emissions. Finally, a LCA using a cradle-to-grave approach was performed and the environmental impact on 18 different indicators was evaluated through characterization and the data were further normalised for comparison between the categories. The findings indicate that intensive rice farming has led to high water consumption, soil nutrient imbalance, methane emissions from flooded fields, and contamination of water bodies due to excessive agrochemical use. Global warming potential for rice cultivation was found to be 1.34 kg CO₂eq/kg of paddy grain due considerable amount of fertiliser and diesel use in agricultural machinery. These impacts pose challenges to environmental sustainability and highlight the need for sustainable rice cultivation practices, including improved water management, balanced nutrient use, and eco-friendly farming techniques, to reduce environmental degradation while maintaining crop productivity.

Life Cycle Assessment, Rice Cultivation, Sustainability, Methane Emissions, Global Warming Potential