Energy Efficiency of Irrigated Wheat Production in Traditional and Mechanized Systems at East Azarbayjan Province, Iran

Proceedings of The Fourth International Iran & Russia Conference 675 Energy Efficiency of Irrigated Wheat Production in Traditional and Mechanized Systems at East Azarbayjan Province, Iran Majid AghaAlikhani1 and Reza KarimiNezhad2 1-Agronomy Department, College of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modarres University,Tehran, Iran. Phone: +98-21- 4196522 Email [email protected]; 2- Graduated Student (M.Sc.) of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran Iran. Phone: +98-21-4196522 Email [email protected] Abstract Ecology of agroecosystems have suffered sever variation due to human mediation with the goal of maximizing energy and matter flow. Application of some input like fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides and fuels in mechanized agriculture counted direct and indirect form of subsidiary energy. In fact yield increment in modern agriculture is mainly the result of large amount of input and energy consumption (for crop planting, protection and harvest). However in some cases subsidiary energy at intensive systems will reduce the energy efficiency. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the most strategic crop that can affect the economy of a country. In recent years self-sufficiency in Wheat production have been an important priority of the Iran government. The most planted area in east Azarbayjan province belongs to wheat cultivation (100000 ha for irrigated and 320000 ha for dry farming wheat). This research tries to investigate the energy balance of wheat production under traditional and mechanized condition. Required information was obtained via technical questionnaires, which distributed between farmers. Energy efficiency was calculated by output to input ratio in both systems. Results showed that energy efficiency in traditional system (2.38) was higher than modern system (1.83). Increasing input energy in modern system increased yield but reduced the energy efficiency. This finding confirms the Mitcherlikh subtractive efficiency law. In spite of higher energy efficiency in customary system, total energy production per area unit was lower than mechanized one due to its low yield. From another point of view the ratio of input and output energy of mechanized to traditional system were 3.53 and 2.27 respectively. Therefore energy dissipation was more in modern cropping systems. It would be stated that more production in mechanized system need more input energy. So based on general objects of sustainable agriculture and considering the economic and environmental issues, the intensive farming is not a good strategy for food production in future. Key Words: Wheat, Sustainable agriculture, Traditional agriculture, Mechanized system and energy sufficiency. Introduction When human began agriculture, tried to produce more yields from the fields by application of different inputs and optimization of resources utilization. Reaching to development in different aspects of human life and bridle of natural energies (animals domestication, . .), discovering and using other energies such as fossil fuels, facilitated the mechanisms of agricultural production. The simple examples of these energies used in agriculture were the agricultural machinery which used energy for crop planting, protection and harvest directly. Also we have to use indirect energy something like as pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizer, etc. All of these inputs need energy in their production processes. The yield increased with increasing of input energies to farm. But the excess increasing of these input energies may cause some economic prejudice. So calculating the energy balance of these Proceedings of The Fourth International Iran & Russia Conference 676 systems is too important. It can help the producers and agricultural programmers to evaluate the economic and noneconamic aspects of field activities, which are energy consumers such as different planting methods, type of planting systems etc. Energy balance in different farms is calculable estimating the input and output energies to agroecosystems and changing all of units to the same one. Energy efficiency is the ratio of used energy (GJ) for one-tone crop production. From economic point of view and energy profitability, we have to use the optimum rates of energy and prevent the energy loss in our fields. This would end to sustainable agriculture. So such assessments are very important on whole of agriculture crops and climates. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of important and strategic crops in Iran, which has determining role in the adjustment of the community throphic level. Consumption per capita of wheat in urban and rural community is 145 and 214 kg respectively. High gain rate of population (1.69 percent) showed that we need at least 13 million tone of wheat, for feeding a 70 million community. Population increases and environmental issues show a bad perspective for food security in future. Therefore all the country accessories and potentials with all scientific, industrial capacity should be used to reach a sustainable food security specially self-sufficiency in wheat production. Calculation of energy efficiency and input, output energies and optimization of the methods in order to reduce energy input in agroecosystems have calculated in different parts of the world. Less ratio of input energy to a tone crop yield, more energy efficiency.Analysis of consumed energy in row crops (corn and soybean) production in Ontario showed that in the period 1975-1991 energy efficiency has increased. In this review energy efficiency of corn production increased from 87.95 Liter Diesel Fuel Equivalent (LDFE) per tone to 44.16 LDFE/ton. Corn total production and yield increased 60 and 20.1 percent respectively. Different analysis of no-till systems have shown that energy requirement reach to a minimum rate due to application of high rate of different herbicides. Pimental et al (1972) reported that increased corn yield of the United States of America was the result of high rates of inputs (fossil fuels). Input energies to an agroecosystem are too variable and would be more or less from each ecosystem to another. Some of them are too small and dispensable into investigations. For example Green (1987), Southwell et al. (1977) and Clements et al. (1995) dispense with the energy requirements for herbicides transportation. One of the sustainable agriculture’s goals is to decrease the rate of energy input especially the chemically originated energy. Based on the findings of Magdoff et al. (1984), Fox et al. (1989) and Beachamp et al. (1992) testing the soil nitrogen is available to decrease fertilizer use. This evaluation is too important because fertilizer manufacturing includes the most energy consumption and consists of about 72.4 percent of total energy use for crop production. Energy use for tillage and herbicides depends on the kind of agroecosystems and their weed management (Swanton et al. (1996). Each system that uses less herbicide need more energy for tractors or laboures to weed control. In this case input energy for weed control is more than energy needed for herbicide manufacturing, so energy efficiency should be decreased. Materials and Methods The assessment of wheat growing areas at east Azarbayjan province shows that some farmers in the most of the villages have been using traditional methods. They used semi-mechanized methods doing some agricultural operations in irrigated wheat cultivation such as: plough and threshing. While the others have done all the procedures in mechanized system (land preparing, planting, protection and harvesting). After recognition and selection about 100 farmers (50 Proceedings of The Fourth International Iran & Russia Conference 677 persons per group) who used customary or mechanized systems, required information was obtain via technical questionnaires, and face to face interview. The questionnaires distributed between the groups and energy efficiency was calculated by output to input ratio in both systems. Even used form consulting of central engineer services to obtain correct responses. Initial data's were unprepared, then obtained using of specific formulae's and energy rating per input unit (Kocheki and Hosseini 1995) on the base of Kcal/ha. By this way input and output energies were identified. Results and Discussion 1.Mechanized system. In generall entered energy or input in an agroecosystem is devided in to two sections: 1) direct energy use and 2) indirect energy use. First one in mechanized system included laboures and different field operations (Table 1). There were different kind of tractors but the majority of farmers used Romanian’s (65 hp.), which was considered in calculations. Equation 1 was used to calculate the effective capacity of the tractor (Kocheki and Hosseini 1995). Equation 1: Effective Capacity = (machine width*yield)/1000 Required time per unit area for each practice is calculated by reversing the effective capacity. Table 1 can be divided in two simple tables which indicate the laboure power (table 2) and calculating the ratio of using energy, (table 2) and the rate of fuel which was used by agricultural machines (table 3). Equivalent energy of laboure per hour is 175 Kcal and for gasoline per litter is 9583.3 kcal. Therefore, total entered energy is 11372658 kcal. Pesticides and fertilizers are the most common indirect energy use in mechanized systems. Their manufacturing and processing need energy (table 4). Therefore, entered energy in total (direct and indirect) per hectare obtained mechanized cultivation of

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