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Energy efficiency of organic pear production in greenhouses in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2010

Yuexian Liu ,
Henning Høgh-Jensen ,
Henrik Egelyng  and
Vibeke Langer
Yuexian Liu*
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture and Ecology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Højbakkegaard Alle 9, DK-2630Taastrup, Denmark. Information Institute, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, Beijing100094, P.R. China.
Henning Høgh-Jensen
Affiliation:
Department of Policy Analysis, National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, DK-4000Roskilde, Denmark.
Henrik Egelyng
Affiliation:
Danish Institute for International Studies, Strandgade 56, DK-1401Copenhagen, Denmark.
Vibeke Langer
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture and Ecology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Højbakkegaard Alle 9, DK-2630Taastrup, Denmark.
*
*Corresponding author: liy@life.ku.dk
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Abstract

The development of organic protected cultivation taking place in densely populated areas has raised the question whether it is an environmentally friendly production system. The present study investigated energy consumption of organic pear production in two production systems, namely in traditional Chinese solar greenhouses and in the open field. In both production systems, energy output/input ratio and energy productivity were used as indicators to determine the energy efficiency; yield, cost of production, net economic return per land area unit and benefit/cost ratio were used to evaluate economic productivity. The analysis results indicated that energy input and energy output per land area unit in the solar greenhouse were higher than in the open field; whereas energy efficiency in terms of output/input ratio and energy productivity were lower in the solar greenhouse than those in the open field. However, if energy input sequestered in the protected structure was excluded in the solar greenhouse production system, energy efficiency was higher in the greenhouse system than in the open-field system. Our analysis further showed that the economic costs, the yield, cost of production, gross product value and net income per land area unit in the greenhouse were more than twice as high as those in the open field due to a higher tree density and a premium price. However, the production taking place in the open field used a great share of renewable energy and higher energy efficiency, which may comply more with the principles of organic farming than the greenhouse production system.

Keywords

organic pearenergy efficiencyeconomic analysisgreenhouse
Type
Research Papers
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 196 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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