Comparing organic and conventional olive groves relative to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with the cultivation of two varieties

Efstratios T. Taxidis, George C. Menexes, Andreas P. Mamolos, Constantinos A. Tsatsarelis, Christos D. Anagnostopoulos and Kyriaki L. Kalburtji

Applied Energy, 2015, vol. 149, issue C, 117-124

Abstract: Organic farming is applied in olive groves in Lesvos Island the last 20years. “Kolovi” and “Adramitiani”, two dominant varieties are cultivated. Since there is limited research for energy inputs in olive groves, 62 conventional and 26 organic farms were selected during 2011–2013 in order to (a) determine the differences in energy flow among farming systems and varieties, (b) group olive groves based on energy flow indicators, (c) compare the CO2-equivalent emissions among farming systems and varieties. A combination of univariate and multivariate statistical methods was applied. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) revealed three farm groups, all consisted of conventional and/or organic olive groves and included both varieties. Group 1 had the lowest energy inputs, while Group 3 the highest. Fuels and transportation, as energy inputs, had the highest contribution in farms’ grouping. A large number of external variables was studied, most of which (fruit production, olive oil production, pomace production, shoot production, olive oil energy production, pomace energy production, shoot energy production, total energy inputs, total energy outputs, intensity, energy efficiency, and energy productivity) had statistically significant differences among the three Groups. Management practices along with geographical location could be a reasonable explanation for the differences between the groups of studied olive groves. Group 3 had the highest non-renewable energy inputs (14,683.5MJha−1) and consumption (2.4MJkg−1) and gas emissions (1.27Mgha−1CO2, 0.17kgha−1CH4, and 10.31gha−1N2O). Group 2 had the highest renewable energy inputs (7065.8MJha−1) and consumption (0.9MJkg−1), and low CO2-equivalent per fruit production (0.12kgkg−1). The above mentioned results show that best management farming practices introduce the use of renewable energy inputs and lead to lower gas emissions.

Keywords: Agro-environmental indicators; Energy analysis; Greenhouse gases; Hierarchical cluster analysis; Organic farming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261915004304
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:149:y:2015:i:c:p:117-124

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.03.128

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().