Effects of tillage treatments on energy-use efficiency of winter wheat and summer corn cropping systems in north China

This study was planned to determine the amount of input energy, output energy, energy-use efficiency and energy productivity for different tillage treatments. Energy equivalent was used in the study to converting energy input. Trial results showed that there were significant differences (P<;0.05) among the three treatments in terms of energy indices and for crop yield. It was found that fertilizers took a great proportion of total input energy (40.36%-64.19%), mechanical operation took the second bigger part (20.48%-35.45%), followed by irrigation (8.23%-23.82%), chemicals and human labor. In growth period of winter wheat, energy input could be saved 14.24% and 4.00% under NT compared to CT and RT, in growing time of summer corn the numbers are 14.10% and 3.43% respectively. It can be concluded that NT is a kind of energy-saving tillage treatment. On the basis of energy ratio, it better to plant winter wheat under RT and summer corn under NT in North China.