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Título
Energy efficiency of cacao agroforestry under traditional and organic management
Autor
Facultad/Centro
Área de conocimiento
Título de la revista
Agronomy for Sustainable Development
Número de la revista
3
Datos de la obra
Pérez Neira, D. (2016). Energy efficiency of cacao agroforestry under traditional and organic management. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 36(3). https://doi.org/10.1007/S13593- 016-0386-6.
Editor
Springer
Fecha
2016
ISSN
1774-0746
Résumé
[EN] The industrialization of agriculture has led to lower
efficiency and greater dependence on non-renewable energy.
Organic agriculture and traditional agriculture are thus potential
alternatives. Cacao is a major crop in Ecuador. However,
information on the energy efficiency and economic performance
of Ecuadorian cacao in relation to the production management
system is rare and basically inexistent in the case of
organic management. Therefore, we studied here the energy
and economic performance of the cacao production in the
province of Guayas, Ecuador. Four types of management were
identified in the province: traditional, semi-intensive,
technified, and organic. On the basis of primary data, inputoutput
and energy efficiency were estimated, with special attention
given to the use of non-renewable energy and the
monetary profitability of each management system. The total
energy inputs of the different forms of management have been
estimated at 3.04 for traditional, 12.47 for semi-intensive,
24.53 for technified, and 9.77 GJ ha−1 for organic. Irrigation,
fertilization, and crop protection are the most important inputs
for all four types of management, ranging between 85.7 and
97.7 %. The non-renewable external energy return on the investment
(EROI) has been estimated at 1:2.93 for traditional,
1:1.85 for semi-intensive, 1:1.47 for technified, and 1:3.07 for
organic. The different forms of management earned a net margin
of 484 for traditional, 1051 for semi-intensive, 2323 for
technified, and $1565 ha−1 for organic. Our findings show that the intensification of cacao production increases the net margin
per hectare in relation to traditional cacao production, while it
significantly reduces its non-renewable external EROI. Wellmanaged
organic farms allow improving non-renewable external
EROI by comparison with technified or semi-intensive
management strategies, and it also improves the economic performance
in relation to semi-intensive systems.
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