Evaluating the energy efficiency of agricultural technologies

A procedure was developed for evaluating the energy efficiency of different field management practices in agricultural cenoses with allowance for thei r effect on the soil energy. The procedure was applied for the comparative evaluation of the efficiency of four agricultural technologies used for gro wing wheat in different regions of the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eu ropean Russia: (1) moldboard tillage without irrigation, (2) moldboard till age with irrigation, (3) subsurface cultivation, and (4) subsurface cultiva tion with mulching of soil with plant residues.