Energy and economic analysis of sweet cherry production in Turkey: A case study from Isparta province

A survey was conducted using a face to face questionnaire with 92 sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) producers from 10 villages in five districts of the Isparta province where there is intensive sweet cherry production. The data collected was analyzed for the energy and economics of sweet cherry production. The results showed that the most energy consuming input for the different operations investigated was chemical fertilisers (45.35%), especially nitrogen (38.05%). The energy consumption for Diesel fuel was 21.53% of the total energy input. Although chemicals for plant protection had a small portion (1.45%) of the total energy input, the use of pesticide in sweet cherry production per hectare in the Isparta province was 5.36 times higher than that of Turkey’s average, increasing the environmental risk problem. The energy use efficiency, defined as energy produced per unit of energy used, was 1.23. The specific energy of sweet cherry production was determined to be 3163.43 MJ tonnes−1. It was found that the direct and indirect energy inputs were 34.48% and 54.91% of the total energy input, respectively. Among the inputs, renewable energy sources constituted 16.34% of the total energy input, which was lower than that of the non-renewable resources (chemical fertilisers and Diesel fuel). The results showed that the net return from sweet cherry production in the surveyed farms was satisfactory, as demonstrated by the benefit–cost ratio of 2.53 calculated by dividing the gross value of production by the total cost of production per hectare.