An Analysis of Current Energy Consumption in China's Agricultural Production

Xia ZHANG，Zongshou CAI，Lihong CHEN，Dezheng ZHANG，Zhe ZHANG

School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering，Yunnan Agricultural University，Kunming 650201，China

1 Introduction

With the rapid growth of the world population and people's increasing living standards，improving food production on dwindling arable land has become a common challenge for the world agriculture［1－2］.Due to increased mechanization and widespread use of pesticides and fertilizers，agricultural production has been greatly developed，and food production has been also greatly improved.Modern agriculture has thus become the main measure to ease global food supply pressure and eradicate famine，contributing to the first boom of modern agriculture on a global scale in human history from developed to developing countries［3］.However，with increasing depletion of global oil resources，soaring oil prices and prominent environmental protection and climate change issues，it is increasingly recognized that the intensive agriculture featured by high investment and high energy consumption not only exacerbates the world's energy crisis，but also leads to lack of natural resources，environmental pollution and ecological imbalance［4］.China is a large agricultural country with 7%of the world's land to feed 20%of the world's population，and China's agriculture has made remarkable achievements over the past decades.According to China Statistical Yearbook［5］，China's grain output increased from 430.67million t in 2003 to 589.57million t in 2012，an increase of 36.9%.What gives no cause for optimism is the excessive dependence of grain yield on chemical fertilizers，pesticides，plastic sheeting and other production inputs which not only consume large quantities of fossil fuels but also bring serious pollution of soil and groundwater［6］.Through 20 years of rapid economic development，energy shortage and environmental pollution have increasingly become the major factors restricting China's economic development and people's living standards improvement，agricultural non-point source pollution has become the main reason for China's environmental pollution［7］.Currently，the energy consumption and environmental protection issues in agricultural production have captured more and more attention of domestic and foreign researchers.Peng Ke et al.used the final consumption of coal，oil and electricity for agricultural production in China's 30 provinces（autonomous regions and municipalities）during2000－2008，to calculate the standard amount of annual average agricultural production energy consumption in major provinces，and employ fixed effects model to find that the main factors influencing energy consumption in agricultural production are agricultural economic growth，number of agricultural workers，mechanization level and spending habits in the past［8］.Zhu Lizhi et al.predicted that2010－2020 will be a stage of substantial increase in agricultural production energy consumption in China，and China's energy consumption in agricultural production will still show unreasonable structure in a long time［9］.These studies described the current situation and trend of energy consumption in agricultural production，but they lacked a further analysis on sources and classification of energy consumption in agricultural production，energy consumption structure and consumption efficiency.In this paper，we firstly expounded the sources and classification of energy consumption in agricultural production，then analyzed the current situation and characteristics of energy consumption in agricultural production in China during 2005－2012，and finally discussed the China's agricultural energy consumption structure and consumption efficiency.

2 Energy consumption in China's agricultural production

The energy consumption in agricultural production is the consumption of energy for farming，forestry，animal husbandry and fishery activities related to agricultural production［9］，which can be divided into two categories，direct energy consumption and indirect energy consumption.The direct energy consumption，occurring within the farm，is the energy consumption in direct relation to agricultural production.The indirect energy consumption，occurring outside the farm，is the energy consumption with no direct relation with agricultural production，and it is mainly the energy consumption for the production of chemical fertilizers and pesticides［10］.Table 1 lists the direct and indirect energy consumption in the major agricultural production process. Compared with industry，transport，commerce and other energy-consuming industries，agriculture has lower energy consumption.For example，the agro-energy consumption in United States accounted for less than 2%of national total energy consumption during 2001－2011.The estimated 1.5 quadrillion Btu of total energy was used by the United States agricultural sector in 2011，with direct energy consumption accounting for 63%and indirect energy consumption accounting for 37%［11］.Thus，the energy consumption in agricultural production has not a great impact on national total energy consumption，but energy consumption is one of the major inputs to agricultural production，having an enormous impact on agricultural production efficiency.According to the agricultural production costs estimation report released by USDA in 2011［12］，for the four major crops in the United States（except soybeans），the energy consumption for the production of corn，wheat and cotton accounted for22%to 27%of total agricultural production costs；the energy consumption for the production of soybeans only accounted for14%of total production costs；the energy consumption for the production of rice，barley and peanuts accounted for 29%to 30%.Thus，it can be found that the study of agricultural energy-saving technologies can not only promote energy conservation and environmental protection in agriculture，but also greatly reduce crop production costs and improve farmers' economic benefits.

Table 1 Different energy consumed by the main activities of agricultural production

3 Current situation of energy consumption in agricultural production in China

At present，the survey and calculation methods vary for the energy consumption of China's primary，secondary and tertiary industries.The energy consumption of agriculture is calculated based on the consumption of related energy types in Intermediate Consumption of Farming，Forestry，Animal Husbandry and Fishery of National Bureau of Statistics，and it is mainly the energy consumption of goods and services in the farming，forestry，animal husbandry and fishery production process，including energy consumption of fuel，electricity consumption and production services as well as energy consumption of fertilizers，pesticides and other agricultural materials［13］.Fuel is calculated by the product of average consumption quota of mechanical fuel and the number of mechanical operations；electricity consumption for agricultural production is obtained from the agricultural electricity consumption data of power supply branch；energy consumption of production services is obtained from the survey data on rural households；the indirect energy consumption of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for agricultural production is obtained from the company statistics［14］.We can get the total energy consumption in agricultural production in China from China Energy Statistical Yearbook.In addition，we can also get the consumption of primary fuel and electricity as direct energy.The difference between total energy consumption in agricultural production and consumption of fuel and electricity can be seen as indirect energy consumption in agricultural production.The energy consumption in agricultural production in China during 2005－2012 is shown in Table 2［15］.As can be seen from Table 2，during2005－2012，China' senergy consumption in agricultural production increased year by year，from 60.711 million tce in 2005 to 67.844million tce in 2012，an increase of11.7%.From Table 2 and Fig.1，it can be also found that since the growth rate of China's total energy consumption was higher than that of energy consumption in agricultural production，the proportion of energy consumption in agricultural production to total energy consumption declined slightly from 2.6%in 2005 to 1.9%in 2012.

From the energy consumption structure，the major energy consumed for China's agricultural production includes indirect energy，diesel fuel，electricity，coal and gasoline.As can be seen from Fig.2，during 2005－2012，the consumption of coal，electricity and indirect energy for China's agricultural production increased year by year；the consumption of diesel fuel first declined and then increased after 2008；the consumption of gasoline was less volatile.In 2012，the total energy consumption in agricultural production was 67.844 million tce，and the consumption of diesel fuel and indirect energy had the greatest proportion，accounting for 29%of total energy consumption in agricultural production；the consumption of coal and electricity accounted for 19%and 18%，respectively；the consumption of gasoline accounted for only 4%；the consumption of charred coal，kerosene and other fuels accounts for only 1% （Fig.3）.From the efficiency of energy consumption in agricultural production，with the improvement of agricultural production technology，the total agricultural output value in China was also rising，having a great impact on the efficiency of energy consumption in China's agricultural production.According to China Statistical Yearbook［5］，the total agricultural output value increased from 3.94509 trillion yuan in 2005 to 8.9453 trillion yuan in 2012，an increase of127%；the direct and indirect energy consumption per unit of agricultural output value in 2005 was 10670.3 and 4718.6 tce／billion yuan，respectively，but it decreased to 5361.6 and 2222.7 tce／billion yuan in 2012，respectively，suggesting that the direct and indirect energy consumption per unit of agricultural output value in 2005 was2.0 and 2.1 times that in 2012，respectively.It can be seen from Fig.4 that the direct and indirect energy consumption per unit of agricultural output value decreased year by year during 2005－2012，indicating that the efficiency of agricultural energy consumption was increased annually.

Table 2 Energy consumption for agricultural production in China during 2005－2012　Unit：106 t of standard coal equivalent（tce）

4 Conclusions

（i）The energy consumption in China's agricultural production is divided into direct and indirect consumption.The direct energy for consumption mainly includes diesel fuel，electricity，coal and gasoline，while the main indirect energy for consumption is natural gas.（ii）During 2005－2012，China's energy consumption in agricultural production increased year by year，from 60.711 million tce in 2005 to 67.844 million tce in 2012，an increase of 11.7%.（iii）In terms of energy consumption structure，the main energy consumed for China's agricultural production includes fertilizers and pesticides，diesel fuel，electricity，coal，and gasoline.（iv）The direct and indirect energy consumption per unit of agricultural output value decreased year by year during2005－2012，indicating that the efficiency of agricultural energy consumption was increased annually.

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