Comparative Analysis of Energy Efficiency in Wheat Production in Different Climate Conditions of Europe

Abstract

This paper presents results concerning energy efficiency of wheat production considered in the context of specific energy input variation in different climatic conditions of Europe as well as case studies on implementation of selected energy saving measures in practice. The source data collected from the six european union (EU) countries represent five agricultural regions of continental Europe and three climates: continental, temperate and Mediterranean. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to analyze the data excluding of pre-farm gate activities. The total primary energy consumption was decomposed into main energy input streams and it was regressed to yield. In order to compare energy efficiency of wheat production across the geographical areas, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) was applied. It was shown that the highest wheat yield (6.7 t/ha to 8.7 t/ha) at the lowest specific energy input (2.08 GJ/t to 2.56 GJ/t) is unique for temperate climate conditions. The yield in continental and Mediterranean climatic conditions is on average lower by 1.3 t/ha and 2.7 t/ha and energy efficiency lower by 14% and 38%, respectively. The case studies have shown that the energy saving activities in wheat production may be universal for the climatic zones or specific for a given geographical location. It was stated that trade-offs between energy, economic, and environmental effects, which are associated with implementation of a given energy saving measure or a set of measures to a great extent depend on the current energy efficiency status of the farm and opportunity for investment, which varies substantially across Europe.

Protein plant factories: production and resource use efficiency of soybean proteins in vertical farming

“…Fuel use in arable farming in northern Europe is about 0.2 MJ m −2 yr −1 . 61 Given a dry yield of 213-443g seeds DW m −2 in open field (derived from Table 5), the resulting values range between 1065 and 2215 g seeds DW MJ −1 , which shows that energy need in field production is negligible with respect to energy use in VF.…”

“…When comparing those results to the open field, the only factor that enables a direct comparison in terms of energy use for production is the fuel consumption for machinery operation. Fuel use in arable farming in northern Europe is about 0.2 MJ m −2 yr −1 61 . Given a dry yield of 213–443g seeds DW m −2 in open field (derived from Table 5), the resulting values range between 1065 and 2215 g seeds DW MJ −1 , which shows that energy need in field production is negligible with respect to energy use in VF.…”

Analytical Framework for the Assessment of Crop Production Technology

“…The use of on-farm field experiments in agricultural experimentation is considered a very useful tool at any stage of research. However, it also underlines the difficulty of testing crop production technology within differentiated farm conditions [2,[15][16][17][18]. Some of the technologies developed by agricultural scientists in the conditions of experimental stations do not work in practice and some of them may be unique to a specific location of the station and have to be (re)developed from the beginning [19][20][21].…”