Evaluation of Tomato Production Systems in Terms of Energy Use Efficiency and Economical Analysis in Iran

• Main Authors: Parviz REZVANI MOGHADDAM, Hassan FEIZI, Farzad MONDANI
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca 2011-11-01
• Series: Notulae Scientia Biologicae
• Online Access: http://www.notulaebiologicae.ro/index.php/nsb/article/view/6279

Efficient use of energy helps to achieve improved production and productivity, and contributes to economy, profitability and competitiveness of agricultural sustainability. The aim of the present study was to compare open field and greenhouse tomato production systems in terms of energy efficiency, energy intensiveness, energy productivity, benefit to cost ratio and amount of renewable and non-renewable energy uses. Data were collected from 128 and 16 open field and greenhouse tomato growers, respectively, by using a face-to-face questionnaire in 2010. The results showed that the total energy requirement under open field and greenhouse systems were 47647.12 and 2102678.73 MJ ha-1, respectively. The share of direct, indirect, renewable and non-renewable energies from total energy input which average in open field and greenhouse production systems were 74%, 26%, 17% and 83%, respectively. Energy use efficiency was achieved 1.42 and 0.18 in open field and greenhouse, respectively. The benefit to cost ratios of 2.33 in open field and 3.06 in greenhouse was recorded. Based on the present results, open field tomato production system had higher energy efficiency in comparison with greenhouse tomato production system while greenhouse system had a higher economical benefit.