Energy assessing and optimising energy efficiency of pear orchards in North-Western India

Abstract

The data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach was applied to differentiate the efficient pear orchardists from inefficient ones in order to recognize wasteful energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in north– western India. The energy inputs and output were audited by using data collected from 31 orchardists through face–to–face interviews. An average total energy input (EI) of 33269MJ ha–1 was used to produce 44360 MJ ha–1 of total energy output (EO) having 0.478 kg MJ–1energy productivity (EP). The pear cultivation was energy efficient with specific energy (ES) of 1.567 and net energy (EN) 11090.9 MJ ha–1. The chemical fertilizers (~35 %) and irrigation water (23.2 %) had the highest contribution toward EI. DEA explicated 12 decision making units (DMUs) as an efficient, whereas 19 as an inefficient. The average technical efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE), and scale efficiency (SE) of pear orchards were 0.880, 0.977, and 0.897, respectively. The energy use efficiency (EE) and energy productivity (EP) can be 30.75 %, and 25.07 % higher with the use of the optimum quantity of energy inputs than the existing quantity. Direct (ED), indirect (EID), renewable (ER), and non–renewable energy (ENR) also exhibited 12.91, 10.62, 12.35, and 12.21 % improvement with optimum use of energy inputs. Inefficient orchardists can save 10.92 % of energy by following pear production practices adopted by efficient orchardists. The output energy (EO) was about 21% higher in efficient orchardists than inefficient ones. An average of 37.4 % less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was determined in the case of efficient units as compared to inefficient ones