ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN DIFFERENT MECHANIZATION METHODS FOR SUSTAINABLE RAPESEED CULTIVATION

In this experimental study, conventional tillage, reduced tillage and direct sowing methods were applied to rapeseed cultivation in the province of Adana, Turkey. The energy that is consumed in the processes of tillage, planting, fertilizing, agricultural spraying, harvesting and transportation stages were calculated during the rapeseed cultivation. Human labor, tractors, tools/machineries, fuel/oil, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation and seed obtainment processes were taken into consideration as energy inputs to determine the amount of energy that is used in rapeseed cultivation. For the determination of the energy outputs in rapeseed cultivation, the lower heating values of winter oilseed rape was taken into account as 26.5 MJ/kg for grain and 17.1 MJ/kg for straw of the plant. For the determination of the energy efficiency, input and output values that acquired under the field conditions were defined by measuring the data in the calculations. In all three type of applications, the energy input for fertilizer was 7242.50 MJ/ha. Compared this value to the other input values in total energy input rate which was used in cultivation, it was seen that the highest levels were determined by evaluating this comparison as 69.07%, 78.32% and 85.13%, respectively. The energy input for fertilizer was followed by energy inputs for diesel, machinery, seed, human labor and oil, respectively. The energy ratios of these rapeseed cultivations were determined as 7.30, 7.55 and 7.24, respectively for each application. When examining the energy efficiencies, the application of the reduced tillage method has the highest energy efficiency in the rapeseed cultivation that compared to other two applications in Adana, Turkey.