ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN FAMILY FARMING SYSTEMS UNDER CLIMATE CONTROLLED CONDITIONS

In order to evaluate energy flux and balance and to calculate the energy efficiency index, three different low scale greenhouses are evaluated with two crop production systems. Firstly, a conventional tomato monocropping system is evaluated on a high energy consumption rate from fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Secondly, an alternative multi-cropping is analyzed under a sustained production base system consisting of natural composts, natural pest control and balanced pest population, nutrient and organic matter recycling, and multiple purpose soil use. This alternative production site included crops such as hot pepper, tomato, carrot, pumpkin, cantaloupe, radish and coriander. The experiment was run under arid and semi-arid climate conditions and it is concluded that the alternative system showed an energy efficiency of 1,63MJ produced by every MJ of energy input. On the other hand, the conventional system only produced 0,52MJ of energy for every MJ of entry. In terms of protein productivity, the alternative crop system utilized 20h of human labor for one kg of protein, while the conventional crop needed up to 118h. The alternative crop system showed better performance for both parameters: 3,13 times as much energy as the conventional system and up to 5,9 times of protein productivity.