evaluation of energy budget and productivity of potato (solanum tuberosum l.) farm of kurdistan province; case study: dehgolan plain

the purpose of this study was to determine used energy input and output analysis in commercial and traditional potato (solanum tuberosum l.) production, in kurdistans, iran. for this purpose, the data were collected from 50 commercial and 50 traditional potato farms. farms were selected based on random sampling methods and inquiries were conducted in a face-to-face interviewing from may 2008 up to august 2009. the results indicated that the total energy inputs for commercial and traditional farms were 93330.67 and 44279.52 mj ha-1, respectively. in commercial system the share of agrochemicals, diesel fuel plus machinery, seed, irrigation water, farmyard manure, and human labor were 42.5, 25.06, 15.40, 10.47, 4.34 and 1.76%, respectively; while in traditional system the amount of mentioned items were 18.21, 27.51, 18.96, 26.28, 1.80 and 7.05%, respectively. about 21.47% of the used total energy inputs in commercial potato production were renewable energy (such as human labor, seeds and farmyard manure) that is increased up to 27.81% for traditional system. mean energy use efficiency, specific energy, energy productivity and net energy of commercial system were 1.37, 2.62 mj.kg-1, 0.38 kg.mj-1 and 34913.07 mj.ha-1, respectively and in traditional system the rate of mentioned parameters were 1.41, 2.55 mj.kg-1, 0.39 kg.mj-1 and 18174.91 mj.ha-1, respectively.