Energy analysis of green manure managements on organic riceberry rice production

Abstract

Rice production in Thailand has been an important part of the Thai economy. In this research, was analyzed and compared energy use pattern for organic rice production in different green manure managements. The rice variety used was Riceberry. The study was conducted from July 2017 to January 2018 on the long-term agricultural field trial at Lamphun province, Thailand. Each field was divided into three equal parts (Crotalaria juncea, Sesbania rostrata and Control treatments). The results showed that the main energy consumption in organic rice production came from fuel (60%) and machinery (30%), moreover green manures treatments increased slightly total energy input but gave large total energy output more than control treatment. The energy use efficiency of sesbania, control and croralaria were 8.18, 5.59 and 7.28, respectively, while the net energy were 18, 864.41, 7, 521.57 and 2, 547.13 MJ Rai−1 (1 Rai = 0.16 Hectare = 1, 600 m2), respectively, as well as the energy productivity were 0.28, 0.18 and 0.25 kg MJ−1, respectively. Therefore, in this study using sesbania as green manure before planting was suitable for organic rice production since the highest values in the energy use efficiency, the net energy and the energy productivity when compared with the other treatments.