Energy Use Efficiency of Sugar Cane Production in the Central Clay Plain of Kenana Area

Abstract

Sugarcane is one of the strategic cash crops in Sudan for production of sugar and other products for local consumption and export. The objective of this research study was to investigate and calculate the amounts of energy used in sugarcane production, to evaluate the energy use efficiency at Kenana Sugarcane Company. Data were collected from this company and literature to compute the required energy parameters. The results indicated that total energy input was 85496.6 MJha-1 and total energy output was 112812 MJha-1 and urea fertilizer energy used in sugarcane production systems had the highest share with 37.0 percent, followed by electricity for irrigation pumps, diesel fuel and seed cuttings used, as 17.1, 15.5 and 13.4 percent energy respectively. The energy use efficiency, energy productivity, specific energy, renewable energy and non-renewable energy of sugarcane production were 1.31, 1.10 KgMJ-1, 0.91 MJkg-1, 19989.2 MJha-1, 65507.4 MJha-1 and 26980 MJha-1 respectively. The energy use efficiency of sugarcane production shows value higher than one, so the system earned energy for sugarcane production in Kenana-Sudan.

Evaluation of Mechanized Field Operations Energies for Production of Sugar Cane Crop: Kenana Sugar Company as Case Study

“…Iran recorded the highest mechanization input energy as 45300 MJ/ha, while Pakistan recorded the lowest MI as 60.8%. The MI of the other compared countries (Iran, Thailand, Morocco, India and Sudan were over 90% [27,15,21,24,19]. This explains that mechanization application in these countries is high compared to Pakistan.…”

“…Brazil, India, Cuba, Mexico, and South Africa and the cane yield varies from 20 to 200 ton per hectare [17]. Energy used for production of sugar cane crop was observed to be of many sources [15,18,19] and was generally higher compared to other cash crops [20,21,22]. In Sudan sugar cane production started early nineteen sixty's and the total area cultivated exceeded two hundred thousand feddan.…”