Since the advent of the industrial revolution, the worldwide energy consumption has been growing steadily. This causes concern, as most of the consumed energy is provided by non-renewable energy sources such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and their consumption goes along with the emissions of greenhouse gases (e.g. carbon dioxide), speeding up climate change. Thus, the efficient and economical use of energy has become a crucial issue, in general as well as in the agricultural sector.

To assess different crop production practices regarding their energy input the following assessment parameters were considered

1. direct energy consumption due to the burning of fossil fuels in the production process, such as consumption of diesel fuel to run tractors, combines and the like and
2. indirect energy consumption due to the production and provision (including transport), of machineries and inputs such as seeds, mineral fertilisers, and pesticides.

All alternative production practices of all crops defined for the model were assessed by their goal achievement levels using a fuzzy logic tool with the optimum being the least possible energy consumption by agricultural activities.