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Energy consumption, input–output relationship and economic analysis for

nectarine production in Sari region, Iran

Article · January 2013

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International Journal of Agriculture and Crop Sciences.
Available online at www.ijagcs.com
IJACS/2013/5-2/125-131
ISSN 2227-670X ©2013 IJACS Journal

Energy consumption, input–output relationship and

economic analysis for nectarine production in Sari
region, Iran
1
Peyman QasemiKordkheili, 1Navab Kazemi,2Abolfazl Hemmati,*3Morteza Taki
1. Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering and mechanization, University of Ramin Agriculture and
Natural Resources, Khuzestan
2. Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology,
University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
3. Young Researches Club Shahreza Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza, Iran
*
Corresponding author email: mortezataaki@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: This study investigated the structure of nectarine production and economic analysis in sari
region of Iran as a case study. The data were collected using a face-to-face questionnaire method from
45 farmers. The results indicated that total energy input for nectarine was about 40.2GJha-1. Among all
inputs involved, fertilizer (36.93%) and diesel fuel (19.68%) had the highest energy values per hectare.
Nitrogen had the highest amount of usage among fertilizers. The benefit-cost ratio and energy ratio for
cultivating were found to be 16.74 and 1.36, respectively. Economic analysis showed that, total cost of
production was 0.056$kg-1. Also, the total mean expenditure for the production was 1638$ha-1. High
amount of output in nectarine production was due to productive native nectarine cultivarand orchard on
time management. Nectarine production method in this region is economically beneficial and can be
suggested to nectarine producers in Iran.

Keywords: Nectarine production, energy indices, sari, energy inputs

INTRODUCTION

Peach, a nutritious and fragrant juicy fruit, is native to China where peach has been cultivated for at least
3000 years. The peach consumption by Chinese people is very large (Zhang, Chang,Wang, &Ye, 2008).The
nectarine fruit (P. persica var. nucipersica.) is a variety of the peach tree.China, Italy, United States of America,
Spain and Greece are main peach producer in the world respectively, and Iran ranked in 6thplace (FAO, 2008). In
the year 2008, all of the peach variety productionswereabout 574958 tons/year in Iran (Anonymous, 2008).
Agriculture plays an important role in the Iranian economy. In the year 2005, agriculture sector forms 11.5 percent
($170 billion) of the Gross Domestic Product, one third of non-oil exports (Around $55 billion) (Sadeghi et al.,
2010).In agricultural practices, energy forms used directly such as; tractor or machinery fuel, in water pumping,
irrigation and crop drying, and indirectly for fertilizers and pesticides. Also, other energy inputs required for post-
harvest processing in food production, packaging, storage, transportation and cooking (FAO, 2000). Reducing
energy inputs in agriculture has more implications. Renewable energy sources coming from agricultural crops could
play an important role to supply the energy requirement and in terms of environmental effects (Rathke and
Diepenbrock, 2006).Energy input–output relation analysis is applied to compute the efficiency of the agricultural
production. On the other words, this analysis determines how efficient the energy is used in production procedure.
So, to analyze energy consumption several studies have been conducted on orchard crops such as apple (Rafiee
et al., 2010) and kiwifruit (Mohammadi et al., 2010) in Iran, apricot (Gündog, 2006), cherry (Kizilaslan, 2009),
pomegranate (Canakci, 2010), grape, olive, orange, lemon, apple, pear, peach, apricot and plum in Italy (Triolo et
al., 1987),apple (Strapatsa et al., 2006) in Greece. In this regard, many surveys have been conducted on field
crops such as cotton in Pakistan (Shafq and Rehman, 2000), greenhouse vegetable production in Turkey (Canakci
and Akinc, 2006) and Iran (Heidari and Omid, 2011), garlic in Iran (Samavatian et al., 2009) and rice in India
Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (2), 125-131, 201

(Nassiri and Singh, 2010). In this survey, the main objectives were to investigate energy use patterns, analyzes the
energy input-output and finance indicesof nectarine orchards in Sari regionof Iran.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Scope of the Study and Data Collection

This study was conducted in Sari County, the provincial capital ofMazandaran province of Iran.Mazandaran
is one of the main agricultural production areas of Iran with 143,100 ha total area and 102,000 ha farming area,
and located in the north of Iran,within 35° 58 and 36° 50 north latitude and 52° 56 and 53° 59 east longitudes.The
surveyed region has some homogenous conditions for orchard establishment such as climatic conditions,
topography and soil type.Data were collected from nectarine orchardgardeners using a face to face questionnaire
and a stratified random sampling technique in 2012. The size of each sample was determined using fallowing
Equation (1) (Kizilaslan, 2009):
Where
(1) n is the
!" #$
require
d sample size; N is the number of holdings in target population; S is the standard deviation; T is the t-value at 95%

study was found to be 45 nectarine farms and they were selected randomly.

Energy Requirements
In this study gathered data were included the quantity of seven energy inputs used per hectare of nectarine
production following: human power, machinery, diesel fuel, chemicals, fertilizer, water and electricity.Also, the
nectarine yield was output.Human power (hha-1) would use mainly for crop harvesting, pruning operations,
conducting some agricultural operations and tractor driving. Most of operations in orchard have been done by
men.The calculated energy of machinery will show all mechanical implements, transferring machines and other
machines energy used for nectarineproduction.Tractor is the main machine that use in nectarine orchards and
orchard tractors were the most popular of them. It used for spraying and transporting crop out of orchards with
trailer. The energy equivalents of inputs were used to calculate the input amountsare given in Table 1.

Table1. Energy equivalences of inputs and outputs

-1
Item Units Energy equivalent(MJunit ) References
Input
Diesel Fuel L 56.31 (Mohammadi et al., 2008)
-1
Electricity kWh 11.93 (Taki et al., 2012)
Human Power h 1.96 (Rafiee et al., 2010)
3
Water m 1.02 (Taki et al., 2012)
Machinery kg 62.70 (Ozkan et al., 2004)
Fertilizer kg
Nitrogen 66.44 (Taki et al., 2012)
Phosphate(P2O5) 12.44 (Mohammadi and Omid. 2010)
Potassium (K2O) 11.15 (Mohammadi and Omid. 2010)
Sulphur (S) 1.12 (Mohammadi et al., 2010)
Farmyard Manure 0.3 (Rafiee et al., 2010)
Biocides kg
Fungicides 92 (Ozkan et al., 2004)
Herbicides 238 (Taki et al., 2012)
Insecticides 101.2 (Rafiee et al., 2010)
Output
Nectarine kg 1.90 (Singh, 1992)

Theenergy use efficiency, energy productivity, specific energy, net energy benefit to cost ratio and
productivity are definedby fallowed equations,respectively (Mohammadi and Omid, 2010);
Energy Efficiency
(2)
Energy Productivity =
(3)
(4)
Specific Energy=
Net energy =Energy output (MJha-1) – Energy input (MJha-1)
(5)
Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (2), 125-131, 201

% & ' (
Benefit to Cost Ratio = (6)
% & ' (

Productivity =
% & ) ( (7)

So, based on the energy equivalents of the inputs and output in Table 1 and recent equation these indices are
calculated. Energy requirements in agriculture are divided intodirect and indirect energies, non-renewable and
renewable energies. Direct energy refers to energy embodied in human labor, diesel fuel, water for irrigation and
electricity,on the other hand indirect energy refers to fertilizers, chemicals and machinery used in the agricultural
production. Also, chemicals, machinery, diesel fuel, electricity and chemical fertilizers are considered as non-
renewable energy and human labor, farm yard manure and water for irrigation considered as renewable energy
(Mohammadi and Omid, 2010).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this research, 45 similar orchards in sari region were carried out. The mean farm size was 4.2 hectare.

Orchard Management
In the investigated area, 100% of surveyed orchards established on flat ground that has been previously
planted to other tree, field or row crops such as; rice, wheat and soybean. On average the farmers plant 320 trees
in 1 hectare. The orchard reaches maturity in the fourth year ofestablishment year.As yields increase the weight on
the branches increases, so to prevent them from breaking, the branches propped with poles or boards about one
month before harvest by human power, and removed after harvest. Farmers irrigate their orchard 3 or 4 times each
year, 2 or 3 times before harvesting and one round after harvesting. Flooding irrigation system was main way for
irrigating that led to water wastage and losses energy.Pruning is done by hand in the winter months. Trees are also
pruned in summer about three weeks prior to harvest to improve fruit color. Additionally to improve fruit color,
leaves are removed (thinned) two to three weeks prior to harvest. Fruit thinning is done by hand six to eight weeks
prior to harvest.Props are placed under the limbs to support the heavy loads and keep the branches from breaking
and then removed after harvest.Nitrogen is the major nutrient required for orchards and manure fertilization is done
in autumn or winter. Nectarine have a short shelf-life potential due to fast softening and overall ripening; so
transferring to market and give to consumers is important factor in producing. Management practices for nectarine
production are given in Table 2.

Table 2. Management practices for nectarine production

Operation Period
Winter Pruning January
Summer Pruning August
Tillage December
Pest control August
Chemical Fertilization January and May
Manure fertilization October and November
Irrigation May to July
Harvesting 15 of May to June

Energy Use Pattern

The components of the energy use pattern for cultivating the nectarine is shown in Table 3.
Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (2), 125-131, 201

Table 3. Amounts of inputs, output and energy inputs and output for nectarine production in Sari region
-1 -1
Input Quantity per unit area (Unit ha ) Total energy equivalent (MJ ha )
Diesel Fuel (L) 140.81 7929.06
Electricity (kWh) 419.66 5006.66
Human Power (h) 1338.9 2624.32
3
Water (m ) 3675.8 3749.33
Machinery (kg) 61.47 3854.55
Fertilizer (kg) 14877.77
Nitrogen 147.5 9800
Phosphate (P2O5) 98.07 1220
Potassium (K2O) 175.51 1957
Sulphur (S) 89.28 100
Farmyard Manure 6000 1800
chemical (kg) 2233.55
Fungicides 9.78 900
Herbicides 2.1 500
Insecticides 8.23 833.55
Total energy input 40275.24
Output
Nectarine (kg) 28868.7 54850.66

As it can be seen fromTable 2,in average farmers used147.2kg nitrogen, 98.07kg phosphate(P2O5), 89.28
sulphur (S), 175.51kg potassium(K2O)and 6 tons of farmyard manure per hectare. Also, 9.78 kg fungicides, 8.23kg
insecticides and2.1kg herbicides are used in nectarine production. Spreading fertilizers had been done by hand.
Amount of chemicals mainly depends on disease and insects attack.Esengun et al. (2007b) reported that the
consumption of potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus were the biggest chemical fertilizer consumption in apricot
production in Turkey, respectively.Additionally, according to the results, 1338.9 h human power, 140.81L diesel
fuel, 3675.8m3of water, and419.66 kWh electrical energy per hectarewas used in surveyed area.In nectarine
production, human power is mainly used for harvesting and period of this operation is about 20 days. Also, the
winter plowing between trees were done by human power. Harvesting on time is a necessary factor and plays an
important role in the nectarine production so thatone day delay in harvesting led to crushing andvulnerability in
transferring. Diesel fuel is used for diesel water pump for pumping water on farms and operating tractors, and its
consumption rate per hectare is affected by tractor horsepower and plough size. The total machinery energy input
for nectarine production was 1164.5 MJha-1.All of the agricultural machines were powered by tractor thus; tractor
sharing in total machinery is higher than other machinery. Tractor mainly used for spraying chemical agent and
transferring crops.However, in some operations such as harvesting farmers didn’t use tractors and it led to wasting
energy.Also to reduce water wastage, dropping irrigationinstead flood irrigation is suggested.High amount of
farmyard manure usage is caused by manure low cost.Consequently, the total energy input for these various
processes was calculated to be 37536.96 MJh-1. The average yield of nectarine production was found to be
28868.7 kgha-1, therefore, the total energy output per hectare was computed as 54850.66 MJ ha-1.In similar
researchRoyanet al. (2012) determined that peach yield 10997.33 kgha-1inGolestanprovinceof Iran. The result also
showed that the most consuming energy inputs for different operation investigated was total fertilizer (36.93%),
followed by diesel fuel (19.68%), electricity (12.42%), machinery (9.56%), water for irrigation (9.30%), human
power (6.51%) and chemical biocides (5.54%)in nectarine production. The high amount of electricity energy in this
region is mainly due to use ancient and inefficient electrical motor for pumping water for irrigation. Finally,the
distribution of inputs used in nectarine production illustrated in Figure 1.
Intl J Agri Crop Sci
Sci.. Vol., 5 (2), 125-13
31, 201

Fertilizer
$" 36.93%
$!

$ Disel Fuel
19.68%
#
Electricity
" Water Machinery 12
12.42%
9.3% Human Power 9.56
56%
! Chemical
6.51
51%
5.54%

Water Human Power Machinery Electricity Fertilizer Disel Fuel Chemical

Figure 1.The distribution of inputs used in the production of nectarine

Royanet
Royan al. (2012 2) reported that in peach production of
ofGolestan
Golestan province of Iran the total energy input was
about 20894.93 MJha-1, that the highest share was consumed by diesel fuel. Taki et al (2012)) concluded that in
greenhouse vegetable production in the Esfahan province of Iran Iran,cucumber
ucumber and tomato production
production consumed a
GJ ha–1 and 116.7GJJ ha–1respectively.
total of 124.4 G respectively Pervanchon et al. (2002) found machinery and fertilizers
fertilizers as
highest energy inputs in potato production with share of 48% and 33%, respectively
respectively.

Energy Indices in nectarine Production

Main
ain calculated energy indices;energy
indices energy ratio,
ratio, energy productivity, specific energy
energy, benefit to cost ratio,
ratio
productivityand net energy gain
productivityand gain, as well as the distributions of inputs according to the direct, indirect, renewable
and non
non-renewable
renewable energy groups are given in Table 4.

Table 4.Improvement
.Improvement of energy indices for nectarine production in Sari region
regionof Iran.
Item Unit Yield ((Nectarine
Nectarine) Percentage (% )
Energy ratio 1.36
-1
Energy productivity kgMJ 0.71
-1
Specific energy MJkg 1.39
-1
Net energy MJha 14575.66
a -1
Direct energy MJha 19308.38 47.9
b -1
Indirect energy MJha 20965.87 52.1
c -1
Renewable energy MJha 8173.65 20.2
d -1
Non- renewable energy MJha 32101.59 79.8
-1
Total energy input MJha 40275.24 100
-1
Total Energy output MJha 54850.66
a human power, diesel fuel, water for irrigation and electricity
b the chemicals, fertilizers, seeds and machinery
c human power, seeds and manure fertilizers
d diesel fuel, electricity, chemicals, water, fertilizers and machinery

Within 45producers in surveyed area,

area, the share of non-renewable
non renewable energy for nectarine production was 79.8%
79.8
andthe energy ratio was found as 1.36, showing that the efficiency
efficiencyuses
uses of energy in the nectarine production in
sari The high ratio of non
sari. non-renewable
renewable energy in the total used energy inp inputs
uts causes negative effects on the
sustainability in agricultural production. Calculation of energy productivity is well documented in the literature for
different crops such as, fiee et al. 2010) and 1.54 for kiwifruit in Iran and 0.96 for cherry
as, 1.16 for apple (Rafiee
(Kizilaslan, 2009)
2009). Also, Mousavi-avval
avval et al. (2011) were calculated energy ratios for canola productionas 3.02.
The use of renewable energy in sari is very low andit
andit shows that nectarine production depends on nonnon-renewable
renewable
energy and the mainly part is chemical
chemicalfertilizer.. Fortunately, nectarine yield is high
high, but farmers use intensive
Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (2), 125-131, 201

farming system with consuming high amount of inputs especially chemical fertilizer. Therefore, to prevent
environmental problems and energy wastage, optimization usage of inputs for all farmers in these regions is
recommended.

Finance Analysis of nectarine Production

Fixed costs and variable costs are two categorized groups of the total expenditure in orchards. Tractor, and
other machinery costs for farmers who rentagricultural machinery,are considered as one of the variable
expenditures indexes and the land rental cost calculated as fixed cost. Variable costs related to inputs costs in
2011/2012 growing season.On the other hand, farm and machinery opportunity cost had been calculated as fixed
cost for owner farmers.Family labor cost was equalized with hired labor cost. Machinery operation costs were
considered as operator, fuel, lubrication and repayments costs. Overhead costs which included; depreciation,
investment in machinery interest, taxes, insurance and housing were calculated. In addition, lubrication cost was
considered as15% of the total fuel cost.Economic indices are given in Table 5.

Table 5.Economic indicesfornectarine production in 2011/12 growing season

Cost and return components Unit Value
-1
Yield kgha 28868.7
-1*
Sale price $kg 0.95
-1
Gross value of production $ha 27425.2
-1
Variable cost of production $ha 1153
-1
Fixed cost of production $ha 385
-1
Total cost of production $ha 1638
-1
Total cost of production $kg 0.056
-1
Gross return $ha 26272.2
-1
Net return $ha 258787.2
Benefit to cost ratio - 16.74
-1
Productivity kg$ 17.62
*
converted Rial to Dollar (central bank of Iran, www.cbi.ir)

As it can be seen from Table 5, the costs of each input and gross production values for nectarine
production are given. Our findings indicate that the gross value of production was found to be 27425.2 kgha-1. It
calculated by multiplying the crop yield by nectarine marketprice. Nectarine market price was between 0.9 $kg-1
and 1 $kg-1, so the average price was 0.95 $kg-1. The total mean expenditure for the production was 1638$ha-1.
About 77.5% of the total expenditures were variable costs, whereas 23.5% was fixed costs. In fact, 1153 $ha-1 and
385 $ha-1 were spent for variable cost and fixed cost, respectively. High amount of variable cost is mainly caused
by increasing inputs prices in Iran. Other studies reported that the ratio of variable cost was higher than that for
fixed cost in cropping systems(Cetin and Vardar, 2008,Mohammadi and Omid, 2010, Esengun et al., 2007a). From
Table 5, it can be seenthat the benefit-cost ratio fornectarine production in these regions was 16.74.To finding
gross return (820$ha-1), the variable cost of production per hectare was subtracted from the gross value of
production andfinally, the productivity (17.62kg$-1), was obtained by dividing nectarine yield by total production
costs.Totally, results from economic analysis of nectarine production showed that nectarineorchards establishment
in Sari regionis beneficial.Consciously, in recent years many farmers in this region change their farm cropping
system and establish nectarine orchards instead of wheat production.

CONCLUSION

In this study, the energy balance between the input and output for nectarine production in Sari region of
Iran was investigated and fallowing results were obtained:
1. The total energy requirement for producing nectarine was found to be 40.2GJha-1.
2. In energy sources, fertilizer, diesel fuel and electricity had the maximum energy values with share of 36.93,
19.68 and 12.42 percent respectively.
3. The value of the energy ratio was 2.06. Also, the value of specific energy consumption for nectarine cultivation
was 12.12 MJkg-1. In this research the ratio of renewable energy within the total energy is very low. The share of
non-renewable energy was 4.58%.
4. Nectarine orchards establishment in Sari region is economically beneficial and producing instead of other crops
is suggested.
Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (2), 125-131, 201

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank Mr. MirhamzeHosseini and Mr. RminBagheri for helping in gathering data.

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