Articles
ENERGY REQUIREMENTS IN ITALIAN HORTICULTURE
About 51 vegetable crops and 9 seed crops are analyzed as well as 11 production systems of plants for transplanting.
In Italy, these vegetables represent many different systems of production.
In general, four main systems can be pointed out: 1) open field; 2) open field with plastic mulch or protection; 3) cold glasshouse; 4) heated glasshouse.
The energy requirements for the crops investigated vary: from 0.7 to 14.9 MJ/kg (21.2–200.3 GJ/ha) for the first production system; from 0.6 to 4.1 MJ/kg (56.0–149. 2 GJ/ha) for the second; from 7.9 to 24.0 MJ/kg (247.5–672.3 GJ/ha) for the third; from 9.4 to 44.8 MJ/kg (1,058–1,618 GJ/ha) for the fourth.
The values reported in product unit are also strictly in function of the yield of the various crops.
The energy requirements for the seed productions range from 18.1 to 76.0 MJ/kg of seed.
For the transplanting plants in labour intensive plant beds the energy requirements range from 0.01 to 0.4 MJ/plant, for mechanized plant beds from 0.3 to 2.7 MJ/plant.