Energetics and Cost Economics of Wheat–based Cropping System

Abstract

A study was conducted in ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India to investigate the input energy use and cost economics for rice-wheat and maize-wheat cropping system during rabi and kharif season of 2021-22. Input energy use and cost for different operations such as; seed bed preparation, seed sowing or transplanting, fertilizer application, spraying, intercultural operations, irrigation, harvesting and threshing were estimated using the standard energy equivalents and methods. Input energy obtained from direct sources (human labour, fuel, electricity) and indirect sources (machineries, fertilizer, chemicals, seeds) was calculated for the different crop cultivation. Rice cultivation recorded the highest energy use (18789.34 MJ.ha^-1) as well as cost of production (`31465.85). Conventional and conservation wheat production were reported as 15697.80 MJ.ha<sup>-1</sup> and 14199.44 MJ.ha<sup>-1</sup> of input energy and `18213.69 and `15563.42 of input cost. Wheat production was closely followed by maize production with 15702.16 MJ.ha<sup>-1</sup> of input energy use and `19456.27 of input cost. Mostly fertilizers contributed to highest input energy use share for all the crops and input energy share through irrigation was also prominent in rice production. Conventional rice (CR)-Conventional wheat (CW) cropping system utilized the maximum energy (34487.14 MJ.ha^-1) and 4.34% less energy (32988.78 MJ.ha^-1) was utilized in Conventional rice (CR)-Zero tillage wheat (ZTW) cropping system. In maize-wheat production, Conventional maize (CM)-Conventional wheat (CW) cropping system utilized 4.77% more energy (31399.96 MJ.ha^-1) than Conventional maize (CM)-Zero tillage wheat (ZTW) cropping system (29901.60 MJ.ha^-1).