Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 3
ENERGY INVESTIGATIONS OF DIFFERENT
INTENSIVE RAPE SEED ROTATIONS - A
GERMAN CASE STUDY
Johannes Moerschner and Wolfgang Lücke
1. INTRODUCTION
Energy use, energy intensity and energy productivity can be applied as a
kind of standard for energy related comparisons of products, production
processes, farms or farming systems. In this contribution the impacts of
different intensive rape seed rotations on these criteria are compared based
on data out of nine years of investigation at two sites nearby Göttingen in
Lower Saxony, Germany. The advantages of the investigated systems
depend on the used energy criteria and on the functional units chosen.
Potential options for changes in cropping strategies with regard to energy
reduction were identified to be strongly dependend on the specific local
conditions.
Investigations on energy aspects can be applied to illustrate
differences in environmental characteristics of agricultural production
systems. Energy use is generally correlated with greenhouse gas emissions
and with depletion of natural resources. In order to reduce both, emissions
as well as depletion of natural resources, potentials for energy saving in
farming activities have to be identified. This may lead to site specific
optimised energy intensities in production. Furthermore, potentials for a
substitution of fossil fuels used on farm by renewable ones may be derived
in a second step from an energy analysis as presented here,
e.g.
application
of biofuels instead of diesel fuel.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The energetical investigations are based on cropping data of the years
1989-1998 from the large scale INTEX-project at the University of
Göttingen. In two project periods (1989-94 and 1994-98 resp.), four and
27
E.C. van Ierland and A. Oude Lansink (eds.), Economics of Sustainable Energy in Agriculture‚
27-40.
©
2002
Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed
i
n the Netherlands.
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