In agriculture, energy use is expressed by direct use of gas oil and electric energy and by indirect use for the production of mineral fertilizers. The consumption of energy per hectare of utilised agricultural area is also presented and compared with other European countries.

In the period from 1992 to 2021 in Slovenia, the consumption of gas oil in agriculture was the highest in the year 1992. This year was taken as a base year. Looking at the last observed year, fuel consumption in 2021 was 13.7 % lower than in 1992.

Indirect energy consumption in agriculture was determined by the energy required for the production of mineral fertilizers. We obtained data for the period from 1992 to 2021. The highest total energy consumption was established for the base year 1992. Otherwise, from this year onwards, a downward trend can be observed. Thus, the indirect energy consumption for 2021 was down by 27.6 % compared to 1992. However, if we look at the consumption of indirect energy per hectare of utilised agricultural area, in 2021 the consumption of indirect energy was lower by 16.1% compared to the base year of 1992. Since we do not produce mineral fertilizers in Slovenia, this energy does not affect the national energy balance, but it does indirectly burden the environment with carbon dioxide.

The highest direct energy consumption in 2016 was in the Netherlands due to a large share of greenhouses, while the Slovenian consumption was 9.5% higher compared to the European average. In the case of indirect energy consumption in agriculture, in Slovenia it was 13.5% lower compared to the European average of 28 countries.