Energy use of second crop sunflower production for oil seed in Söke Plain

The aim of this study was to examine energy input and output for secondcrop sunflower production in Soke plain of Turkey. The data used in this studywere collected through a questionnaire by face to face interviews in the 2009production year. The sunflower crop farmers were surveyed in Soke plain ofAydın province. Taking actual farm size as the variable, the total 55 farms wasrandomly selected by using stratified random sampling. In the study, the inputs inthe calculation of energy use in the second crop sunflower production includehuman, labor, machinery, diesel oil, fertilizers, chemicals and seeds were includedin the output total. Energy values were calculated by multiplying the amounts ofinputs and outputs by their energy equivalents with the use of related conversionfactors.The output/input ratio was determined by dividing the output value by theinput. The total energy used in various farm inputs was 7408.5 MJ/ha for thesecond crop sunflower production. The fertilizers energy input of the sunflowerproduction was the highest in the total energy consumption with the value of4112.5 MJ/ha followed by fertilizers (1720.3 MJ/ha). The share of machineryenergy including fuel, lubricant and manufacturing energy of farm machinesinputs was 34.3 %for the second crop sunflower production. The results showedthat the average yield in seed cotton was 1870 kg per hectare. The energyoutput/input ratio was found to be 6.63, if sunflower seeds are only taken intoaccount. The specific energy was 3.96 MJ/kg, while the energy productivity andnet energy value were found to be of the order of 0.25 kg/MJ and 41772.5 MJ/ha,respectively for the second crop sunflower production.Key Words: Soke plain, Sunflower production, Second crop,Energy efficiency