Energy balance in the production of mountain coffee

Coffee culture is highly relevant in Brazilian agriculture in socioeconomic terms. The energy balance of production systems results from the subtraction of the consumed energy (MJ ha-1) from the produced energy (MJ ha-1), in any culture or system. Produced energy is understood as the transformation resulting from the production of grains or fruits, or dry matter, into energy. Consumed energy or cultural energy (MJ ha-1) is understood as the sum of the energy coefficients related to the fertilizers, seeds, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, incident solar energy during the cycle and operations related to sowing, fertilization, application of products and manual harvesting. Post-harvest is considered to be the sum of the energy coefficients spent in the pre-processing and processing operations used in each treatment. The present work aimed at evaluating the energy balance in a mountain coffee production system with emphasis on production, harvest and post-harvest. It was concluded that plants and their individual components take little advantage from the amount of energy aggregated in the energy balance (less than 0.3%).