Difference in Energy Input and Output in Agricultural Production under Surface Irrigation and Water-Saving Irrigation: A Case Study of Kiwi Fruit in Shaanxi

Abstract

China’s kiwi industry has seen rising production costs and shrinking planting areas in recent years; at the same time, the lack of professional production standards leads to the input redundancy and waste of production factors in the production process of kiwifruit, which intensifies the dilemma of unsustainable agricultural production. This has brought more and more serious challenges to the sustainable development of the industry. In order to solve this problem and clarify the composition and utilization efficiency of energy in the production process of kiwifruit, this study took Chinese kiwifruit production as the research object and analyzed the energy input and output under surface irrigation and water-saving irrigation from the perspective of energy. The results show that the energy input of kiwifruit production under traditional surface irrigation was 85.4 GJ/ha, and the energy output was 59.7 GJ/ha. Among all energy input elements, mineral fertilizers accounted for the highest proportion of energy input, accounting for 48.31%. Under water-saving irrigation, the energy input and output of kiwifruit production are 72.3 GJ/ha and 62.3 GJ/ha; the highest energy input is also mineral fertilizer. The data envelopment analysis results also confirmed that there is a large redundancy in the amount of mineral fertilizer. Compared with surface irrigation, water-saving irrigation technology has effectively improved the energy ratio (from 0.70 to 0.86), energy productivity (from 0.37 kg/MJ to 0.45 kg/MJ) as well as net energy (from −25.8 GJ/ha to −9.93 GJ/ha). Thus, promoting the application of water-saving irrigation technology and increasing the proportion of fertigation during the kiwi production process are necessary measures to promote the sustainable development of China’s kiwi industry.