Energy balance of direct seeding applications used in wheat production in middle Anatolia

Abstract

In the present study, which was conducted at PolatlA± agricultural farms, three different applications were used for wheat production. These were conventional tillage, reduced tillage and direct seeding applications. It was found that seed energy had the highest percentage of use among the portions of total input energy. Seed energy was followed by fertilizer, diesel-oil, chemicals and machinery, respectively. When the energy input/output ratio was taken into consideration, the highest rate was obtained as 2.81 through direct seeding application and this was followed by conventional tillage application with a decrease of 8.49% and reduced tillage application, with a decrease of 18.06% respectively. Consequently, it was put forth that direct seeding applications can also be used in wheat production.   Key words: Direct seeding, tillage system, wheat, energy balance, energy input-output.