Assessment of Energy Efficiency and Nutrient Balance in Organic Rice Farming Area

Energy efficiency and nutrient balance are good methods for environmental assessment of the environmentally-friendly agriculture. The objectives of this study were 1) to estimate the energy efficiency and nutrient balance of the organic rice farming, and 2) to suggest a solution to improvement the energy efficiency and nutrient balance. The set of estimation was performed at the organic rice farming area (8.9 ha) in Wanju-gun during the paddy cultivation period from 2006 to 2007. The organic farming complex consists of four weeding methods using 1) duck, 2) apple snail, 3) duck and apple snail and 4) hands and machinery. Results from this estimation should that the organic rice farming area was less efficient than conventional rice farming. The efficiency of organic farming area in 2006 was higher than in 2007. For the calculation of the nutrient balance, the N, P and K contents of input materials (cattle manure, milk vetch, mixed oilcake, rice bran, rice straw and barley straw) and output (farm products) were analysed. Annual environmental loads of N, P2O5 and K2O were estimated at 4.4 kg/10a, 13.8 kg/10a and 14.5 kg/10a, respectively. Cattle manure had the largest portion among the inputs items and nutrient concentration of cattle manure was high. Thus energy efficiency and nutrient balance depend on cattle manure input. Therefore it is necessary to control the manure input to improve the efficiency of organic rice farming.