A comparison of energy use and productivity of wheat and barley (case study)

Comparison of energy productivity of different crops can be used as an effective tool to prioritize crops planting in each area. This study was conducted in order to compare wheat and barley farms of Sistan and Baluchestan province in Iran in relation to various aspects of energy consumption at 2009. 100 wheat and 100 barley fields were selected randomly from main 11 cities in the studied region. Input data and yield of wheat and barley fields were collected in the form of questionnaires in a face-to-face interview. Results showed that total energy inputs of wheat and barley fields were 32492.97 and 25655.81 MJ ha−1, respectively. Total energy outputs for wheat and barley fields were 48517.24 and 49800.87 MJ ha−1, respectively. Based on these results the amount of energy use efficiency for wheat and barley fields were 1.49 and 1.94, respectively, and the amount of energy productivity for mentioned fields were 0.056 and 0.066. The share of renewable energy as one of the sustainability indexes of agricultural systems was 19.60 for wheat and 14.60 for barley fields. Therefore, it seems that barley production is more efficient from various aspects of energy consumption rather than wheat in the studied region.