scholarly journals Energy use pattern analysis of rockmelon (Cucumis melo) production in Malaysia: a case study

Food Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (S5) ◽  
pp. 34-39
Author(s):  
Liyana N.A. ◽  
D.E. Pebrian

Preservation of energy resources for crop production is a crucial act in an endeavour to make agriculture more sustainable. In response to that matter, this study aims to analyse and evaluate energy use pattern and its economic in rockmelon (Cucumis melo) production in Malaysian farms. Face-to-face interviews with the sampled farmers were employed to collect the data through a case study in Klang district, Selangor state of Malaysia. The collected data was then analysed using mathematical operations and spreadsheet software. The results indicated that the total energy inputs in rockmelon were 4475.62 MJ/ha. The highest portion, which accounted for 73.29% of the total energy inputs were consumed by fertilizers, while the lowest portion was used for seed (0.01%). The total energy inputs were formed from 85.12% indirect energy and 14.88% direct energy; and 85% non-renewable energy and 15% renewable energy. The net energy and energy productivity values were 11332.85 MJ/ha and 2.81 kg/MJ, respectively. The farmers gained 29.94% profit margin from their farms business. The ratio of energy output -inputs in rockmelon production was 5.34. As the ratio was much greater than 1, thus, conclusively, the energy inputs used by the farmers in the process of rockmelon production was highly efficient.

Author(s):  
Moslem Sami ◽  
Habib Reyhani

This study evaluated the impacts of cotton farming on the climate changes in terms of energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission indices. Energy consumption pattern and sensitivity of energy inputs were evaluated and share of each input in GHG emissions was determined in the form of direct and indirect emissions for cotton farms in Golestan province of Iran. The total energy input and energy output were calculated to be 34,424.19 and 41,496.67 MJ/ha respectively. The share of fertilizers by 45.0 % of total energy inputs was the highest. This was followed by energies of fuel (18.4 %) and irrigation (17.9 %) respectively. Fertilizers and fuels were also the biggest producers of GHGs in the farms with shares of 61.95 and 24.32 % of total GHGs emission. Energy ratio, energy balance, energy intensity and energy productivity were found as 1.21, 7,072.48 MJ/ha, 9.79 MJ/kg and 0.10 kg/MJ, respectively. Results of sensitivity analysis indicated that the cotton production was more sensitive to energies of seed and human labour than other inputs and an additional use of 1 MJ of each of these inputs would lead to a change in the yield by −0.75 and 0.73 kg/ha, respectively. The results also showed, in the process of cotton farming 897.80 and 1177.67 kg CO2 – equivalent of direct and indirect GHG were emitted per hectare respectively.


Author(s):  
Nawal Khamis Al-Mezeini ◽  
Abdulrahim M. Al-Ismaili ◽  
Said M. Tabook

Sustainable agricultural production could be assessed through energy-use efficiency (EUE). Thus, this paper aims to evaluate the EUE for cucumber greenhouse production in Oman. Data were obtained by interviewing farmers (face-to-face). Result indicated that total energy inputs (e.g. electricity, water, fertilizers and agrochemicals) and total energy output (cucumber yield) were 1159726.0 MJ ha-1 and 89942.9 MJ ha-1, respectively. The highest energy consuming input in the greenhouse production was electricity, consuming 88% of total energy input. This indicates that electricity had again the highest impact in cucumber greenhouse production and 99% of electricity goes for cooling the greenhouse. When all energy inputs were classified into its forms; direct (D) and indirect (ID), and renewable (R) and non-renewable (NR), the highest portion of total energy forms in greenhouse cucumber production was for D and NR energy. The EUE and energy productivity (EP) were found to be 0.07 and 0.10 kg MJ-1, respectively. Energy use in greenhouse cucumber production was inefficient and solar energy need to be implemented to improve cucumber greenhouse sustainability production.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1073-1076 ◽  
pp. 2468-2472
Author(s):  
Dong Tian ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Jian Ying Feng

This study examines energy consumption of inputs and output used in protected grape production, and aims at to find relationship between energy inputs and yield in the major protected grape producing regions in China. For this purpose, the data were collected from 516 questionnaires which included 304 effective ones by questionnaire survey method. The results indicated that total energy inputs were 57697.84 MJha-1where the Chemical with (32.4%) and Fertilizer with about (21.1%) were the major energy consumers. About 53.4% of the total energy inputs used in protected grape production was indirect while 46.6% was direct. The non-renewable shared about 78% whereas the renewable energy did 22%. Average yield and energy consumption are calculated as 25367.22Kgha-1and 299333.2MJha-1. Energy use efficiency, energy productivity, specific energy and net energy were 5.18, 0.44 kgMJ-1, 2.27 MJkg-1and241635.36 MJha-1, respectively.


2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (No. 2) ◽  
pp. 50-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.R. Jadidi ◽  
M.S. Sabuni ◽  
M. Homayounifar ◽  
A. Mohammadi

The aim of the contribution was to determine energy consumption of input and output used in tomato production and to optimize the energy inputs in the Marand region, Iran. The study also sought to analyse the effect of farm size on energy use and input costs based on tomatoes production and to reveal the relationship between energy inputs and yield by developing mathematical models. Questions about energy management present very interesting and actual topic in this time. The results revealed that tomato production consumed a total of 65,238.9 MJ/ha of which fertilizers were 50.98% followed by water for irrigation (20.67%). Output-input energy and energy productivity were found to be 0.59 and 0.74 kg/MJ, respectively. The results of energy optimization showed that using existing energy inputs, the yield of tomato can be increased by 45.2% in small farms, 43.5% in medium farms and 30% in large farms. The rate of direct, indirect, renewable and non-renewable energy forms were found to be 37.2, 62.8, 30.9 and 69.1% of total energy input, respectively. The main non-renewable inputs were chemical fertilizers and diesel fuel, management of plant nutrients and proper machinery selection to reduce diesel fuel use would increase rate of renewable energy.  


Author(s):  
Hemchandra Saikia ◽  
B. C. Bhowmick ◽  
R. A. Halim

Energy is a very key component in every sphere of our life, be it a crop production or any other field. Again seasonality is a very common phenomenon in crop production and due to this there exist slacks and peak season of various sources of energy use and production. Present study was conducted in Golaghat district of Assam to highlight the month-wise energy use and also to know the energy output-input and benefit-cost ratio. Sampling method used for the study was Three Stage Sampling method. Result from the study revealed that the cropping intensity of the study area was 119.57 per cent. The most dominant energy consuming months were July, August, November, and December using 30.64, 18.90, 13.12 and 7.65 per cent of the total energy used in crop production in per hectare of gross cropped area. The energy output-input and benefit –cost ratio of the study area were 10.84 and 1.64 respectively. From the study it was found that there is vast scope to boost the production, productivity and profitability of crop production in study area by providing all the necessary infrastructures in due space and time in adequate amount and proper quality.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 229
Author(s):  
Gerhard Moitzi ◽  
Reinhard W. Neugschwandtner ◽  
Hans-Peter Kaul ◽  
Helmut Wagentristl

A goal in sustainable agriculture is to use fossil energy more efficiently in crop production. This 60-year-old experiment on a silt loam chernozem investigated effects of fertilization (unfertilized control, mineral fertilizer (NPK) and farmyard manure (FYM)) and rotation (continuous winter rye (CR), winter rye in rotation (RR), spring barley in rotation (SB) on diesel fuel consumption, total energy input (made of both direct and indirect inputs), crop yield, energy output, net-energy output, energy intensity, energy productivity and energy use efficiency. The input rates of fertilizer, herbicides and seeds were set constant during the experiment. Soil tillage was done with a moldboard plough with subsequent combined seedbed preparation and seeding. The mean calculated total energy input was highest in NPK with 11.28 GJ ha−1 and lowest in the unfertilized control with 5.00 GJ ha−1. Total energy input for FYM was intermediate with 6.30 GJ ha−1. With energetic consideration of NPK nutrients in FYM the total energy input increased to the level of NPK. The share of the fertilizer energy on the total energy input was 49% for NPK. Fertilization with FYM and NPK increased yield and energy output considerably, especially of CR and SB which attained about doubled values. Crop rotation also increased the yield and energy output, especially of unfertilized rye, which attained values increased by about 75%. Fertilization with FYM resulted in the highest energy efficiency as the net-energy output, the energy productivity and the energy use efficiency were higher but the energy intensity was lower compared to unfertilized controls and NPK. When the nutrients in FYM were also energetically considered, the energy efficiency parameters of FYM decreased to the level of the NPK treatment. Crop rotation increased the energy efficiency of winter rye compared to the monoculture.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1835
Author(s):  
Robert Oliver Simon ◽  
Kurt-Jürgen Hülsbergen

The main objective of the cultivation of energy crops is the production of renewable energy, the substitution of fossil energy resources, and a substantial contribution to energy supply. Thus, energy yield and energy efficiency are the most important criteria for the assessment of energy crops and biomass-based renewable energy chains. Maize is the energy crop with the highest cultivation acreage in Germany because of its high energy yields, but is the subject of controversial debate because of possible detrimental effects on agro-ecosystems. This raises the question as to which energy crops and production systems could be used instead of maize, in order to increase crop diversity and lower environmental impacts. We examined yields, energy inputs, energy outputs, and energy efficiency of alternative energy crops (combinations of catch crops and main crops) compared to maize in four-year field experiments at three southern German sites by means of process analyses. Maize showed moderate energy inputs (11.3–13.2 GJ ha−1), with catch crops ranging from 6.2 to 10.7 GJ ha−1 and main crops ranging from 7.6 to 24.8 GJ ha−1. At all three sites, maize had the highest net energy output compared to the other crops (x¯ = 354–493 GJ ha−1), but was surpassed by combinations of catch and main crops at some sites (winter rye/maize: x¯ = 389–538 GJ ha−1). Although some combinations yielded higher net energy outputs than maize, no other crop or combination of crops outperformed maize regarding energy use efficiency (energy output/energy input: x¯ = 32–45).


Agropedology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hrittick Biswas ◽  
◽  
Suresh Kumar ◽  
M. Prabhavathi ◽  
Amrut Morade ◽  
...  

In semi-arid regions, the amount of rainfall and its distribution governs not only output levels but also influences uses and pattern of energy-inputs. Current study analyzes the role of energy and economic indicators to identify a suitable crop under different rainfall situations in rainfed areas of southern India. For this study, ten years data on production of rainfed sorghum and chickpea were analyzed with help of an array of energy and economic indicators like net energy, energy efficiency, specific energy, energy productivity, energy intensity and human labor profitability. The results of the study show that the share of non-renewable energy (80% in normal rainfall years) was remarkably higher than renewable energy in production of both the crops. Deficient rainfall led to decline in the consumption of energy inputs by 19.6 and 5.7 %, and consequently resulted in a reduction of output energy by 48.6 and 63.4 % in comparison to normal rainfall in case of sorghum and chickpea cultivation, respectively. Further, energy efficiency scores were found to decline to an extent of 1.95 and 1.29 under deficient rainfall situations from the levels of 3.06 and 3.32 obtained under sorghum and chickpea production under normal rainfall conditions, respectively. The computed values of benefit: cost ratio and energy efficiency suggests that chickpea is the more suitable rainfed crop as compared to sorghum in the semi-arid Vertisols of Karnataka.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios BILALIS ◽  
Panoraia-Eirini KAMARIARI ◽  
Anestis KARKANIS ◽  
Aspasia EFTHIMIADOU ◽  
Antonis ZORPAS ◽  
...  

Maize (Zea mays L.) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) are two important crops in Mediterranean countries. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the differences and similarities in energy flow between conventional and organic tomato and maize crops. Our results indicated that the total energy input in the conventional system was higher than in organic system and for individual crops was 25.90 and 29.34% higher for tomato and maize, respectively, than the organic system. Of the inputs for the different operations, fertilizers consumed the bulk of the energy for all crops. In maize crop, human labour had little impact on total energy use both in organic and conventional system. In addition, seed inputs in maize production had corresponded to 11.44% of the total energy requirement. Concerning the pesticides inputs, there were significant differences between organic and conventional systems. In both crops, the pesticides energy input was higher in conventional production compared to organic system. Moreover, irrigation inputs were 13-23% of the total energy use in the organic system and 12-20% in the conventional system. In both crops, the energy output and energy productivity were also higher in conventional production compared to organic system. Our study shows that the adoption of organic cultural system could reduce energy inputs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Changjiang Li ◽  
Shuo Li

AbstractThe well-irrigated planting strategy (WI) consumes a large amount of energy and exacerbates greenhouse gas emissions, endangering the sustainable agricultural production. This 2-year work aims to estimate the economic benefit, energy budget and carbon footprint of a wheat–maize double cropping system under conventional rain-fed flat planting (irrigation once a year, control), ridge–furrows with plastic film mulching on the ridge (irrigation once a year, RP), and the WI in dry semi-humid areas of China. Significantly higher wheat and maize yields and net returns were achieved under RP than those under the control, while a visible reduction was found for wheat yields when compared with the WI. The ratio of benefit: cost under RP was also higher by 10.5% than that under the control in the first rotation cycle, but did not differ with those under WI. The net energy output and carbon output followed the same trends with net returns, but the RP had the largest energy use efficiency, energy productivity carbon efficiency and carbon sustainability among treatments. Therefore, the RP was an effective substitution for well–irrigated planting strategy for achieving sustained agricultural development in dry semi-humid areas.


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