نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
Introduction: Today, agriculture is one of the main consumers of energy in the world. Due to the limitations of energy resources and the growing trend of the world population, the importance of studying energy in the agricultural sector becomes apparent. Analyzing energy input flows to agricultural systems can improve energy use efficiency by understanding more details about inputs and their contribution in total energy input to the farm.
Materials and Methods: The present research aimed to analyze energy and economic indicators in semi-traditional and mechanized rice farming systems in Durood County, Lorestan Province, in 2022. The data used in this study were obtained using a questionnaire and face to face in the studied region. In this research, different energy indicators (net energy, energy efficiency, energy consumption efficiency, specific energy, and water efficiency) and economic indicators (total production cost, gross income, net income, and income-cost ratio) were used to compare the energy flow in two systems of semi-traditional and mechanized rice cultivation.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that the total energy input entering the semi-traditional and mechanized farming systems was calculated as 139666.34 and 136228.19 MJ ha-1, respectively. The highest amount of energy use in the semi-traditional and mechanized systems is related to fossil fuel (65.96 and 66.49%), irrigation water (17.17 and 16.62%), and nitrogen fertilizer (10.97 and 10.97%), respectively. The results of this research showed that in both semi-traditional and mechanized farming systems, the share of direct energies was significantly higher than indirect energies, which was due to the excessive use of resources such as human labor, fossil fuel, and irrigation water. In addition, non-renewable energies also made up about 80% of the input energies entering the semi-traditional and mechanized farming systems in Durood county, while the share of renewable energies was calculated to be about 20%. The higher share of non-renewable energies can be attributed to the excessive use of chemical fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash), fossil fuels, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. The results of the analyzing energy indicators revealed that the amounts of net energy, energy productivity, energy use efficiency, and specific energy in the semi-traditional farming system were equal to 11381.66 MJ ha-1, 0.04 kg MJ-1, 1.08, and 22.92 MJ ha-1, while they were calculated as 29419.81 MJ ha-1, 0.05 kg MJ-1, 1.22 and 21.49 MJ ha-1 in the mechanized farming system, respectively. Moreover, the water use efficiency was equal to 0.248 and 0.285 kg m3 in semi-traditional and mechanized systems, respectively. The net income in the mechanized farming system (989714780 Rials) was higher than the net income obtained from the semi-traditional rice farming system (813695300 Rials) due to the higher economic performance of grain and straw. The income-to-cost ratio was also higher in the mechanized system than in the semi-traditional system, indicating more income per unit of cost in the mechanized system.
Conclusion: Altogether and according to the findings of this research, the mechanized cultivation method was superior as compared with the semi-traditional rice cultivation method based on economic and energy indicators. It is suggested that in order to increase the share of renewable energies and increase the energy use efficiency in both mechanized and semi-traditional systems, farmers should use less fossil fuel for irrigating the fields by using irrigation water based on the plant's irrigation requirement.
کلیدواژهها English
