Energy Utilization Patterns for Sustainable Crop Production in the Semi-Arid Vertisols of India
2022
Biswas , Hrittick | Kumar , Suresh | Prabhavathi, M. | Morade , Amrut | Sharma , Vikas | Rao, K. S. | Sheshadri , B. N. | Mohan Kumar, P.
In semi-arid regions, the amount of rainfall and its distribution governs not only output levels but also influences uses and pattern of energy-inputs. Current study analyzes the role of energy and economic indicators to identify a suitable crop under different rainfall situations in rainfed areas of southern India. For this study, ten years data on production of rainfed sorghum and chickpea were analyzed with help of an array of energy and economic indicators like net energy, energy efficiency, specific energy, energy productivity, energy intensity and human labor profitability. The results of the study show that the share of non-renewable energy (80% in normal rainfall years) was remarkably higher than renewable energy in production of both the crops. Deficient rainfall led to decline in the consumption of energy inputs by 19.6 and 5.7 %, and consequently resulted in a reduction of output energy by 48.6 and 63.4 % in comparison to normal rainfall in case of sorghum and chickpea cultivation, respectively. Further, energy efficiency scores were found to decline to an extent of 1.95 and 1.29 under deficient rainfall situations from the levels of 3.06 and 3.32 obtained under sorghum and chickpea production under normal rainfall conditions, respectively. The computed values of benefit: cost ratio and energy efficiency suggests that chickpea is the more suitable rainfed crop as compared to sorghum in the semi-arid Vertisols of Karnataka.
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