Energy Budgeting of Sustainable Rice Based Cropping Systems in Sub Tropical India

Abstract

The f ield investigations were carried out for energy dynamics in terms of various input used and outputs harvested under rice (Oryza satva L.) based cropping systems at the research farm of Project Directorate for Farming Systems Research, Modipuram, Meerut, India during 2003 to 2007. The experiments were conducted with five rice planting methods, viz. direct seeding; (1) dry bed, drum seeding (2) wet bed, mechanical transplanting (3) puddled, mechanical transplanting (4) unpuddled and manual transplanting (5) puddled and three cropping systems involving rice (Oryza satva L.)-wheat (Triticum aestivum L. emend. Fiori. Paol.), rice-chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and rice-mustard (Brassica Juncia L. czernj & coss.) crops in randomized block design replicated three times. The results revealed that the input energy consumed was 40, 27, 14 and 7.7 percent in fertilizer, diesel fuel for irrigation, machineries, and labour of total energy used, respectively, for crop production in rice-wheat system. The comparison of different cropping systems shows that rice-chickpea consumed least input energy (i.e. 30,698 to 35,046 MJ/ha) followed by rice-mustard (varied from 36,195 to 40,543 MJ/ ha) and rice-wheat (varied from 39,984 to 44,332 MJ/ha). System wise energy analysis indicated that the highest input energy (44,332 MJ/ha) was consumed in manually transplanted (puddled) followed by mechanically t ransplantedpuddled (43,686 MJ/ha) while lowest was mechanically transplantedunpuddled (39,984 MJ/ha), direct seeded-dry bed (42,027 MJ/ha) and drum seeded-wet bed (42,197 MJ/ ha) in rice-wheat system. The output energy was highest in drum seeded (212,798 MJ/ha) closely followed by direct seeded (211,350 MJ/ha) and lowest was manually transplanted in puddled (193,916 MJ/ha) which is statistically at par. The net return energy of the system was found to be high in drum seeded (170,595 MJ/ha) followed by direct seeded (169,271 MJ/ha) and lowest was in manually transplanted in puddled (149,390 MJ/ha) which were nonsignificant. The direct and drum seeded required about 5 percent less input energy and gave 8 to 9 percent higher output energy as compared to manually transplanted in puddled field. Whereas, in case of mechanically transplanted (unpuddled), it required 10 percent less input energy and provided 6 percent higher output energy, however, in puddled condition mechanically transplanted required 1.5 percent less input energy and gave 3 percent higher output energy as compared to manually transplanted (puddled). Similar pattern of energy dynamics were also found in rice-chickpea and ricemustard systems