Bioenergetic efficiency of short-term crop rotations with the inclusion of late-ripening crops in the arid climate of the Lower Volga region

Relevance. Due to global climate changes, it is of particular interest to study the issue of increasing crop rotation productivity in conditions with uneven precipitation during the growing season. It is possible to identify the most effective crop rotation schemes, regardless of pricing policy, using bioenergy assessment. The inclusion of drought-resistant late crops capable of making up for crop losses of other crops in unfavorable years ensures the stabilization of output and increases the efficiency of agrocenoses.
Methods. The study of the effectiveness of the inclusion of grain sorghum and corn in the fourfield crop rotation was carried out on the basis of bioenergetic analysis. The following indicators were calculated based on the amount of accumulated energy from the harvest and the cost of total energy for crop cultivation: energy gain, bioenergy coefficient, energy profitability and energy cost of harvest. The mathematical processing of the results was carried out by the method of variance analysis using the AGROS 2.09 program.
Results. As a result of the energy analysis, it was revealed that the inclusion of row crops in agrocenoses significantly increases the efficiency of using arable land in conditions of insufficient moisture. In the variants with saturation of crop rotations with row crops, the maximum energy output is set with a harvest of steam — winter wheat — soybeans — grain sorghum (32.67 GJ/ha) and steam — winter wheat — soybeans — corn (35.12 GJ/ha) at a total energy consumption of 11.16–11.35 GJ/ha. In these variants, the energy gain was 21.68–23.94 GJ/ha, the energy profitability was 194.33–211.12%, the cost of crop energy was 0.39–0.41 GJ/ha, and the energy efficiency coefficients were 2.94–3.12. Correlation analysis revealed a strong positive dependence of the coefficients of bioenergetic efficiency of crop rotations on the hydrothermal conditions of crop cultivation, the correlation coefficient between the indicators was 0.71–0.74. In acute arid years, differences in the efficiency of crop rotations with different crop alternations are more pronounced than in average and moistened ones.

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