Energy Analysis for Two Production Systems of Cucumber

Abstract

This research, conducted in Gotvand, southwest of Iran, compared the energy consumption of two cucumber production systems: field and greenhouse production systems. In this study, energy inputs of two production systems of cucumber (including seed, pesticide, human labor, machinery, diesel fuel, electricity, organic manure, chemical fertilizer) were determined from questionnaires completed by farmers. The results of the experiment indicated that the energy input of the two cultivation systems was not significantly different in input energies. In both cucumber production systems, the most input energy was allocated to nitrogen fertilizer (57% and 53% for field and greenhouse, respectively) followed by diesel fuel (21% in both production systems). Non-renewable energies accounted for 90 and 88% of the total energy input to the farm and greenhouse systems, respectively. Total output energy of field and greenhouse cucumber production system was 33000 and 34000 MJ, respectively. Reducing the consumption of nitrogen fertilizer through the use of appropriate crop rotation is a suitable solution to improve energy efficiency in the cucumber production system.