Abstract
Energy whatever might be its source viz. human, animal, machine, electricity, solar, seed, chemical, fertilizer, gasoline or diesel has become a crucial input of agriculture right from preparatory tillage to the disposal of farm produce, energy input is necessary. This study investigates the energy balance and economic analysis of cucumber production in tillage methods. A tin of 50 g of treated cucumber seeds was planted in three different tillage systems namely; reduced, minimum and maximum tillage using foot dibbling method. Human power, machinery, diesel fuel, fertilizer, seed and pesticides were various forms of energy inputs used during the field cultivation of cucumber in the selected tillage methods. Input and output method of energy analysis was used to analyze the amount of input and output energies in each of the three tillage systems used in the production of cucumber. The calculated energy indices determined are energy ratio, energy productivity, specific energy, net energy and energy efficiency index. The result revealed that the highest total energy input and output values of 8694.09 and 8359.33 MJha -1 were estimated in maximum tillage, minimum tillage has an average values of 7774.42 and 12015 MJha -1 , while the least average values of 5688.26 and 12736.67 MJha -1 were estimated in reduced tillage, respectively. The highest benefit–cost ratio of 2.94 was found in minimum tillage, followed by maximum tillage with a value of 2.35, while least value of 2.08 was estimated in reduced tillage. Keywords: Cucumber, tillage, energy, energy indices and net profit DOI : 10.7176/JETP/10-1-08 Publication date: February 28 th 2020
Highlights
Agriculture is both a producer and consumer of energy
The highest machinery physical input was recorded in maximum tillage which varied from 14.64 – 16.5 h with an average value of 15.30 h, minimum tillage has a range of 11.4 – 11.6 h with average value of 11.2 h, while the least machinery input range of 5.8 – 6.5 h with an average of 5.9 h was observed in reduced tillage
The highest total energy input between the ranges of 8196.54 and 9525.61 MJha-1 was estimated in maximum tillage, minimum tillage has a range of 7474.37 and 8297.54 MJha-1, while the least range of 5677.65 and 5764.87 MJha-1 of total energy was estimated in reduced tillage for the three cropping seasons
Summary
Agriculture is both a producer and consumer of energy It consumes large quantities of locally available noncommercial energy, such as seed, manure and animate energy, as well as commercial energy sources, directly and indirectly, in the form of diesel, electricity, fertilizer, plant protection chemical, irrigation water, machinery etc (Morteza et al, 2012). The increased use of inputs such as fertilizer, irrigation water, diesel, plant protection chemicals, electricity etc. Demands more energy in the form of human, animal and machinery (Yadav and Khandelwal, 2013) Efficient use of these energies helps to achieve increased productivity and contributes to the economy, profitability and competitiveness of agricultural sustainability of rural communities (Omid et al, 2011). Improving energy use efficiency is becoming increasingly important for combating rising energy costs, depletion of natural resources and environmental deterioration (Ashkan et al, 2014)
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