1. Introduction
1.2 Methodology
1.2.1 Calculating the Energy Consumption
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1.2.1 Calculating the Energy Consumption
The inspiration for calculating energy consumption were derived from the Journal of Clean Production and in various studies concerning energy research and particularly in Heller and Keoleian (2002, 2003). Consumption may be classified into: first, direct consumption may be considered in the likes of fuel, electricity and animal feed and seeds while second, indirect consumption pertaining to the use of fertilizers, other treatments, or the depreciation of machinery. Only imported seeds were taken into account since domestic seeds are not included in any statistics and government has no record of data; therefore, domestic seeds are considered as an internal flow of
consumption. The human labor is not taken into account in energy calculation.
For energy calculations total energy consumption in production of all products including most stages in the life cycle, with accuracy as much as possible would be used. Some inputs of the agrarian sector are used with the same coefficients
considering that they use different energy sources. This is due to the fact that this source offers only a median value, therefore, it was impossible to distinguish between diverse energy sources. Energy consumption used to produce imported agricultural products is not taken into consideration. Since it is not possible to distinguish energy consumed to produce goods for export, this energy consumption is taken into account.
Estimation of the real energy consumption of agriculture sector distinguish between consumption for livestock, fishing, farming machinery and irrigation. To estimate primary energy consumption derived from the application of inorganic fertilizers is taken from Helsel’s coefficients (1992). According to these calculations, the production of each kg of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium consumes 78,230 kJ, 17,500 kJ, and 13,800 kJ, respectively in stages of production, packaging,
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transportation and application. They are all included in this paper’s estimations.
Pesticides calculations are based on Ferraro (2007) research about pesticides’ use and consumption. The amount of nutrients and energy consumed in Taiwan in year 2015 is available in the Agriculture Statistics Yearbook 2015 (ASY, 2015).
In case of sea transportation, to calculate the energy consumed by the export and import of agricultural products come from the Agriculture Statistics Yearbook 2002 (ASY, 2002) and Annual Report 2015 of Bureau of Foreign Trade (Ministry of Economic Affairs, 2015). For calculating land transportation were used data from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and its Statistics Inquiry (MTC, 2017). Since the statistics above do not provide precise number of tons related with agriculture, this research works with value amounts recalculated with the same ratio to ton amounts. The sea transportation provides data about imported and exported value goods by country. Therefore, this percentage of value is used to calculate tons of transported, exported and imported goods and we assume that the same percentage is applicable to number of tons.
Then, for the data about the distance between the largest port in Taiwan, Kaohsiung, and the main sea ports in the major export and import destination areas are based on SeaRates database (http://www.searates.com, viewed on March 2017). To data of sea transportation were applied the coefficient of 0.2 MJ1 per t/km and to data of land transportation were used the coefficient 1.7 MJ per t/km compiled by different case studies for the EU and the rest of the world (Peréz and Monzón, 2008).
The processing calculations are reflecting the amount of final energy consumed by
1 MJ (= megajoule) is equal to one million (106) joules, or approximately the kinetic energy of a one megagram (tonne) vehicle moving at 160 km/h.
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agriculture industry based on data from Taiwan Power Company (TPC, 2015). In case of packaging, data are based on that which were provided by public servants during interviews with the Council of Agriculture’s workers. The consumption of plastics for packaging food in Taiwan in 2015 was approximately 627,000 tons.
The calculations for energy consumption per material produced are based on Heller and Keoleian (2002) which adapt the data produced by SAE (1998) about the
coefficients applicable to packaging for the estimation of LCA. This gives the indirect primary energy consumption for the life-cycle packaging stage of agricultural
production in Taiwan.
For retail, data came from the Taipei Power Company (TPC, 2015) and from the Energy Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs (EMEA, 2016 a) providing the final energy consumption figures for the services related sector to agriculture sector. These services are wholesale of agricultural raw materials and live animals (120,325,861 kWh2) and retail of agriculture raw materials and live animals (140,150,248 kWh).
Agriculture related services consumed around 5.63% of energy expenses on
wholesale and retail services (TCP, 2015). The energy consumed by households for cooking purposes, such as gas or electricity, is adapted from the Journal of Clean Production studies concerning this issue.
2 kWh = kilowatt hour.
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Taiwan is located in subtropical zone characterized by high temperatures and heavy rainfall in summer, winter season is usually quite warm with no snowfall, except high mountains.
These conditions are fitting well for agriculture and, unfortunately, also for breeding of insects and diseases.
Taiwan is known for frequent typhoons mostly in summer and autumn. Total area of Taiwanese island is
35,981 km2 where is 29% of flat land (Figure 2, below) and around 24% of arable land (AFA, 2014).
Agriculture nationally contributes to the food security, rural
development and conservation of Taiwan, it remains as one of the main industries. In Taiwan, the agriculture sector contributed as a strong foundation for commercial
and industrial “economic miracle” during which was challenged by rapid economic development and increasing wages. Agricultural population has steadily decreased from 1974 to 2002; therefore, the Council of Agriculture promoted modern farm management, provided technical training and offers counseling. However, compared to 1950s and 1960s, agriculture sector plays minor role in the Taiwanese economy today.
In 2002, Taiwan joined World Trade Organization (WTO) and consequently its
Picture 1.: Land in Taiwan. Source:
http://www.taiwan-agriculture.org/
33%
38%
29%
Figure 2: Types of land in Taiwan
Mountainous land Slope land Flat land
Data source: http://www.taiwan-agriculture.org/