The Rural Voice, 1999-11, Page 11Scrap Book
Less energy
needed to grow
more food
Crop breeding, herbicide and
fertilizer production and the rise
of no -till systems have helped
Ontario farmers produce as much
food as they did 25 years ago with
half as much energy, University of
Guelph researchers say.
"You'd think that with all the
food farmers are producing these
days,. fuel and energy consump-
tion would be out of sight," says
Prof. Clarence Swanton, leader of
the team of plant agricultural
scientists, "but we found just the
opposite."
The study examined energy
use from 1970 to 1991, catching
just the beginning of the soybean
boom of the 1990s. Swanton said
improvements in crop breeding
have contributed significantly to
this energy use reduction. Yields
have risen much faster than
energy consumption, meaning
efficiency has increased. For
example, gains in corn yields
increased at a rate of 1.7 per cent
annually from the late 1950s to the
late 1980s. The gain in soybean
yields is less — 0.5 to 0.9 per cent
annually — but still significant.
As well, newer corn hybrids and
soybeans varieties are often better
competitors and are more tolerant
of stress such as low nitrogen
levels.
Energy savings in the
production of fertilizer is another
big reason for the savings. Fert-
ilizer accounts for 70 per cent of
the energy used in corn produc-
tion and the decrease in fertilizer -
based energy has been huge: 42.4
per cent in corn and almost 54 per
cern in soybeans.
The final factor is no -till.
Researchers don't know exactly
how much fuel has been saved but
one 1994 estimate was equal to
270 million litres a year.0
— Source: Research Magazine,
University of Guelph
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