Co2 Emission and GWP of Energy Consumption in the Cotton Production in Golestan Province of Iran

Abstract

Abstract. Careful choosing of appropriate methods in farming operations reduces fuel consumption, energy, and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in agricultural production. The present study was conducted to investigate the input and output energies and GHG emissions in cotton production in Golestan Province of Iran and the cities of Ali Abad Katool and Aqqala. For this purpose, agricultural operations were randomly selected from 100 farms for the years 2014 and 2015 and the related data on all farms were recorded. Various inputs and comprehensive information at every phase from planting to harvesting were collected, recorded, and processed and then extracted from multiple sources for each equivalence operation during different crop operations for cotton production using a conversion ratio of energy and GHG emissions. Afterward, the energy and GHG emissions for each input and operation were calculated. According to the obtained results, the mean power output was 154 GJ per ha, which is approximately six times of the average input energy (26 GJ/ha). The output and input energies for cotton production were 49 to 243 and 15 to 43 GJ/ha, respectively. Moreover, Global Warming Potential (GWP) of various activities in the cotton fields varied between 741 up to 7790 kg CO 2 equivalent per ha. The maximum GHG emissions were related to fertilizers with manure and fuel ranked in the next orders. The comparison between input energy and GWP revealed their direct relation in cotton production farms. Irrigation, feeding, and preparation operations had the highest fuel consumption and led to an increase in GHG release. Based on these results, it can be concluded that energy consumption and GHG emissions can be reduced by lowering fuel consumption and using chemical fertilizers.