ENERGY FOR PRODUCTION AGRICULTURE
Surendra Singh Ex. Project Coordinator (Farm Implements and Machinery) Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) and
Radhey Shyam Singh Principal Scientist (Agricultural Economics) Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh)
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ICAR
DIRECTORATE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN AGRICULTURE
Indian Council of Agricultural Research Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan I, Pusa, New Delhi 110 012
First Edition
Project Director
Incharge, English Editorial Unit
Editing
Chief Production Officer Assistant Chief Technical Officer
July 2014
Dr Rameshwar Singh
Dr Aruna T. Kumar Dr Sudhir Pradhan
DrV. K. Bharti Ashok Shastri
Š All Rights Reserved 2014, Indian Council of Agricultural Research New Delhi
ISBN : 978-81-910-388-5-9
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Price : ? 750
Published by Dr Rameshwar Singh, Project Director, Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan-I, Pusa, New Delhi. Lasertypeset at M/s Archana Printographics, 421-A, Shahpur Jat, New Delhi 110 049 and printed at M/s Chandu Press, D-97, Shakarpur, Delhi 110 092
Contents Page no.
iii
Foreword
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Preface SectionI 1 2 3 4
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Energy use in production of crops, fruits and vegetables Introduction Indian agriculture Area, production and productivity scenario Farm power sources and availability Indian energy scenario Energy use in crop production Energy use in fruit production Energy use in vegetable production
SectionII Energy use in household and agricultural allied activities Energy use in household activities 9 Energy use in agricultural and allied activities 10 SectionHI 11 12 13 14 15 16
Energy conservation and management Energy sources in agricultur Energy conservation technologies and methods Minimization of energy resources for optimum productivity Energy perspective in agriculture Energy use and environmental dimensions Vision 2025 Subject Index
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3 8 43 61 73 85 232 237
252 273
302 346 363 402 424 436 440
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SectionI Energy use in production of foodcrops, fruits and vegetables
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Introduction
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a pivoted role in national development process and in providing major vital services that improve human conditions: fuel for cooking, light for living, motive power for transport and electricity for modem communication. In agricultural sector, energy is used in every form of inputs - seed, fertilizer, agro-chemical for plant-protection, machinery use for various operations, and is directly linked with the technological progresses. In modern agriculture, commercial energy sources (petroleum fuel, electricity,machinery, seeds, synthetic fertilizer, and agro-chemical) contribute bulk of the energy supplies to the production system. The extents of uses of agricultural inputs have been increasing over years leading to higher productivity. NERGY plays
AGRICULTURE AND ENERGY In our country, energy use in agriculture has been increasing since Green Revolution in the late seventies with increasing use of high-yielding seed varieties, synthetic fertilizers, agro-chemicals, as well as diesel and electricity in farmoperations. The pattern and the rate of growth of demand for energy sources is influenced by a number of factors as increasing population, growing urbanization, rising house-hold income, changing life-styles and structural changes taking place in the economy. Increase in land productivity and efficient diversification of agriculture for better economic return to the producers will call for significantly higher level of energy input to agriculture. Agricultural experts all over the world have marshaled ample evidence to support that energy use per hectare has direct bearing on the crop yield. Indian agriculture has witnessed a tremendous transformation since Independence particularly due to ‘Green Revolution’ of the seventies. As a consequence, the food production has increased about more than four-fold, leading the country towards self-reliance and food security.
Energy for Production Agriculture
Energy has played a key role in this transformation process. Notwithstanding the achievements in the agricultural sector, the fact is that much remains to be achieved in the face of mounting demand for agricultural commodities with the increasing population, rising per caput income and growing awareness about health and nutrition. In a land scare agrarian economy like India, a large volume of additional production has to be achieved by energy intensification and judicious management of energy system. The energy intensification led growth strategy for augmenting agricultural production could be viewed as a ‘double edged weapon’ which on one count cuts the bottlenecks for higher production in the short run, while on the other it prunes the stock of natural and non-renewable resources in long run. This ‘double edged’ nature of energy intensification has given rise to umpteen apprehensions about imminent energy crisis and environmental hazards, raising concerns about sustainability of agricultural production system. Agriculture in India has gone into more or less total transformation from organic to inorganic agriculture. Increasing use of commercial energy has made agriculture move with fast stride. Energy as an input is attaining higher demands with the growth of agricultural production that is priority goal in agriculture to sustain ever-growing population. A significant aspect of agriculture and energy is the interactive relationship between energy and other agricultural productioninputs. Besides direct uses of energy as fuels, fossil-fuel energy inputs to agricultural production systems are also represented as indirect energy requirements for land, labour, water, machinery etc. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the use of energy in the form of fossil fuels began growing as more and more industries were set up. This occurred in stages, from the exploitation of coal deposits to the exploitation of oil and natural gas fields. It has been only half a century since nuclear power began being used as an energy source. In the past century, it became evident that the consumption of non-renewable sources of energy had caused more environmental damage than any other human activity. Electricity generated from fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil has led to high concentrations of harmful gases in the atmosphere. This has in turn led to problems such as ozone (03) depletion and global warming. Vehicular pollution is also a grave problem. Due to the problems associated with the use of fossil fuels, alternative sources of energy have become important and relevant in today’s world. These sources, sun and wind, can never be exhausted and are therefore called renewable. Also known as non-conventional sources of energy, they cause less emission and are available locally. Their use can significantly reduce chemical, radioactive, and thermal pollution. They are viable sources of clean and limitless energy. Most of the renewable sources of energy are fairly non-polluting and considered clean. However, biomass is a major polluter indoors. Renewable energy sources include the sun, wind, water, agricultural residue, fuelwood, and animal dung. Fossil fuels are non-renewable sources. Energy generated from the sun is known as solar energy. Hydel is the energy derived
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Introduction
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from water. Biomass - firewood, animal dung, and biodegradable waste from cities and crop residues - is a source of energy when it is burnt. Geothermal energy is derived from hot dry rocks, magma, hot water springs, natural geysers, etc. Ocean thermal is the energy derived from waves and also from tidal waves. Through the method of co-generation a cleaner and less polluting form of energy is being generated. Fuel cells are also being used as cleaner energy source. With increasing demand on commercial energy resources in production and processing of agro-produces, energy management would play a key role in developing regional/national coherent and implementable strategies for energy conservation, adopting energy efficient technologies as well as determining an appropriate energy resource-mix of conventional and renewable energy resources for minimizing energy cost. A reliable supply of energy, in the right form, at the right time and at affordable prices, is an essential pre-requisite for high agricultural productivity. During the decade from the mid-70’s to mid 80’s hundreds of research projects were conducted around the world with the general goals of (i) improving the efficiency of energy utilization, or (ii) developing alternatives to petroleum or natural gas for use in agriculture and the food industry. Why do we need energy? InIndia, agriculture is the largest sector of economic activity. Although the share of agriculture in India’s gross domestic product has declined to about 16% in 2009-10 from 56% in 1950-51, however, about 65% of the population still depends on agriculture for their livelihood. The population is still growing at a fast rate and reached more than 1,200 million. Mainly due to vegetarian diet the production of about 250 million tonnes of foodgrains is just sufficient to feed the present population. The biggest challenge before the agriculture sector of India is to meet the growing demand for food to feed increasing population. The introduction and rapid spread of high-yielding rice and wheat varieties in the late 1960s and early 1970s resulted in steady growth of foodgrains. Public investment in irrigation and other rural infrastructure and research and extension, together with improved crop production practices, has significantly helped to expand the production and stock of foodgrains. Land is the main source of food for Indian population but the fertility of cultivable land as well as its total availability is mostly given by the nature. The totalland area of India is 328 millionha. An estimated 142 million ha is cultivated area, of which about 55 million ha is irrigated and remainder 87 million ha is rainfed. To boost crop production, human efforts are therefore, required to improve both the quality of land and the level of land use. The farmers are accomplished by the application of inputs, which raise the productivity levels of crops. Improvements of land use, on the other hand, has two dimensions: extension of the net area sown, and multiple cropping of land. Since the prospects of further extending the net area sown is rather limited inIndia, extension of multiple cropped area is an important means of improving land use and thereby production. In
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Energy for Production Agriculture
Indian conditions it is possible to grow as many as three crops in a year, but in reality the average cropping intensity is a little over 1.35 and also varies from state to state. In a land-scare but labour-abundant country like India, a high cropping intensity is desirable not only for full utilization of land resources to achieve higher production level, but also for reducing seasonal unemployment in the rural economy and for achieving greater stability in food supply. Energy consumption per unit area in agriculture is directly related with the development of technological level and production. The inputs such as fuel, electricity, machinery, seeds, fertilizers and chemicals take significant share of the energy supplies to the production system in modem agriculture. The use of intensive inputs in agriculture and access to plentiful fossil energy has provided an increase for standards of living and food production. However, some problems in agricultural production have been faced due to mainly high level dependency on fossil energy. The problems with the use of fossil energy have become into focus by oil embargo in 1973 and increase in energy prices. Now-a-days environmental issues such as global warming are the major concerns related to the use of fossil energy. Further more considering that fossil energy is a limited resource, it has to be conserved for future generations by using efficiently in a sustainable manner. Energy is considered to be a key player in the generation of wealth and also a significant component in economic development. This makes energy resources extremely significant for every country in the world. Efficient use of the energy resources is vital in terms of increasing production, productivity, competitiveness of agriculture as well as sustainability to rural living. Energy auditing is one of the most common approaches to examine energy efficiency and environmental impact of the production system. It enables researchers to calculate input-output ratio, other relevant indicators and energy use patternin an agriculturalactivity. Moreover, the energy audit provides sufficient data to establish functional forms to investigate the relationship between energy inputs and outputs. Estimating these functional forms is very useful in determining elasticity of inputs on yield and production. Energy use pattern and contribution of energy inputs vary depending on farming systems, crop season and farming conditions. Considerable work has been conducted on the use of energy in agriculture with respect to efficient and economic use of energy for sustainable production. Energy input-output analysis is usually used to evaluate the efficiency and environmental impacts of production systems. This analysis is important to perform necessary improvements that will lead to a more efficient and environment-friendly production system. Optimization of energy use in agriculture is reflected in two ways, i.e. an increase in productivity at the existing level of energy inputs or conserving the energy without affecting the productivity. The growing uncertainty in the supply of hydrocarbons and the concern due to growing environmental pollution caused by inefficient use of energy were the main factors which have lead to increasing emphasis on energy efficiency and conservation the world over. The conventional energy sources are depleting fast on account of increasing demand. Consequently, in recent times energy has
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Introduction
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emerged as one of the most important considerations in design and management of agricultural operations. The energy crisis in agriculture sector has resulted in large-scale deforestation, soil erosion and loss of soil fertility. The rapid growth of agriculture has resulted in manifold increase in the requirements of commercial energy in the farm sector. Different components of modem agriculture technology have increasing reliance on the purchased non-conventional inputs contrary to home-grown traditional inputs. Traditional agriculture was mostly dependent on non-commercial energy sources. In modern agriculture, commercial energy sources such as diesel, electricity and chemical fertilizers contributebulk of energy supplies to the production system. Anticipating a major upward shift in the energy demand and energy use pattern in the agriculture sector, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in 1970-71 decided to initiate a multi-location project as ‘All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Energy Requirements in Intensive Agricultural Production’, subsequently renamed as ‘Energy Requirements in Agricultural Sector’. The project since its inception has endeavoured to conduct research on energy in the context of its increased demand resulting from modem technological inputs to agriculture and necessitated due to increased demand for food, feeds and fibre on account of population pressure and rising standards of living. Solution of the energy crisis is strongly dependent on the technology of how energy is used. To make a physical change in the world it is necessary to use four resources: energy, matter, space and time. How well a task has been performed can be measured in terms of the amount of fuel consumed, the mass of material used, the space occupied, the hours of labour to accomplish it, and the ingenuity with which these resources are utilized. Squandering of irreplaceable energy sources, waste of materials, or large expenditures of space and time cannot be tolerated, if the necessities of life are to be provided for all. Technology addresses itself to the efficient utilization of these four ingredients of physical change. The era of cheap energy is now ending and the populace will necessarily become energy conservation conscious; first because of the rising cost for energy, but later because of the dire consequences in placing additional stresses on our biosphere, already showing serious signs of the strain. The availability of the surplus energy in the past enabled the mankind to develop a more complex social structure. The present social structure and activities are dependent more and more on energy from fossil fuels. The resources of fossil fuels are extremely limited. At the present growth rate of industrialization and mechanization, the world resources of fossil fuels are going to last for a few decades only. The gravity of this problem has compelled all the nations in the world to conduct studies to find ways and means for solving it.
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Indian Agriculture
|/EVIDENCE of the presence of wheat and some legumes in the sixth millennium
-t/B.c. has been found in the Indus Valley. Oranges were cultivated in the same millennium. The crops grown in the valley around 4000 B.C. were typically wheat, peas, sesamum, barley, dates and mangoes. By 3500 B.C. cotton growing and cotton textiles were quite advanced in the valley. By 3000 BC farming of rice started. Other monsoon crops of importance of the time were cane sugar. By 2500 B.C., rice was an important component of the staple diet in Mohenjodaro near by Arabian sea. The Indus Plain had rich alluvial deposits which came down the Indus River in annual floods. This helped in sustaining farming that formed the basis of the Indus Valley Civilization at Harappa. The people built dams and drainage systems for the crops. By 2000 B.C. tea, banana and apple were being cultivated in India. There was coconut trade with East Africa in 200 B.C. By 500 A.D., bringal were cultivated. The birth of our independence on 15 August, 1947 was preceded by the great Bengal famine and severe food shortages. This prompted the then Prime Minister of India, Pt JawaharlalNehru to mention, “Everything else can wait; but not agriculture�. Thanks to public policies and investments over the last 60 years as well as the enormous progress made by the country in agricultural research, education and extension, impressive achievements have been made in improving agricultural productivity and production on the one hand, and human longevity, on the other. For example foodgrain production increased from about 51 million tonne in 1950-51 to 257.44 million tonne in 2011-12; productivity of major cereals increased from 522 kg/ha to over 2059 kg/ha; the net area under irrigation increased from about 18 million ha to over 60 million ha; gross irrigated area has also increased by over 300 (Anonymous, 2013). Groundwater irrigation has played the lead role in bringing more area under irrigation. Annual milk production has
Indian Agriculture
gone up from about 20 million tonne in 1950-51 to nearly 121.8 million tonne in 2010-11, thereby taking India to the first position in the world in milk production (Anonymous, 2013a). This was achieved through management innovations spearheaded by the National Dairy Development Board, leading to mutually reinforcing linkages among milk production, processing and marketing. Both marine and inland fisheries have registered impressive progress. Rural energy systems have gained enormously from scientific work related to the harnessing of biogas, biomass, solar and wind and other forms of renewable energy. Bio-fuels are also receiving increasing attention. During the first two decades (1947-67) of independent India, the major
concern was the establishment of the necessary infrastructure for scientific agriculture. The second three decades (1967-97) saw the benefits of synergy between technology, public policy and farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; enthusiasm in the form of Green Revolutionin wheat, rice and other crops. The country witnessed during this period, the origin of a Green Revolution. Unfortunately, the third phase starting in 1997 has been witnessing stagnation in production and productivity and a fatigue in the Green Revolution. The twin challenges facing Indian agriculture are; improving the productivity of small farms (< 2 ha) which constitute over 86% of the operational holdings, and the launching of an agro-processing and agri-business revolution, rainwater harvesting, conservation and efficient and conjunctive use, insurance and credit reform, technology and inputs for conservation farming, and producer oriented marketing. The contribution of agriculture to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has gone down to 16% although nearly two-thirds of our population still depends upon agriculture for their livelihood. The average size of farm holding is 1.41 ha. Out of a total geographical area of 329 m ha, over 142 m ha constitute the net sown area. Nearly 63% of this area is rainfed. It is important to promote conservation farming, minimum tillage and green agriculture. Conservation farming involves efficient soil health and water management and adoption of the principles of precision farming. Green agriculture promotes the application of ecologically sound techniques like integrated pest management, integrated nutrient supply, crop - livestock integration, and the use of the most appropriate crop and variety. Green agriculture, unlike organic agriculture permits, the use of the minimum essential mineral fertilizers and chemical pesticides. It also permits the planting of genetically modified crops.
Land use pattern in India India has a total land area of approximately 328.73 million ha. Land utilization statistics are obtainable for almost 92.7% of the entire area (Anonymous, 2012). According to the available land use statistics, there has been a slight increase in the net sown area. Almost 28 million ha was added over the passing few decades. Another 1.3% of the land is under fruit trees. Nearly 5% of the land falls in the category of uncultivated land, which is cultivated not every year but once every two to three years. Thus, closely 51% of the whole area, on an average, is cultivated
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Energy for Production Agriculture once a year. However, it is noteworthy that the fallow land has declined to 5% from the earlier figure of 7%. This demonstrates possibly greater use of manures and fertilizers and acceptance of new techniques to conserve more moisture in
such lands. The recorded forest area of the country is 76.52 million ha as reported by the State Forest Departments (Anonymous, 2012). This area has been classified into Reserved, Protected and Unclassed forest, which constitute 54.44, 29.18 and 16.38% of the forest area respectively. As per data from remote sensing on the basis of data and the FSI assessments, only 63.73 million ha is estimated to be under actual forest cover as of 1999. It is important to ensure that the area under forests is increasing. A bigger area under forests is an obligation, to maintain the ecological balance and for absorption of carbon dioxide (C02), the assemblage of which is likely to heighten the green-house effect. This in turn would raise atmospheric temperature at the global stage. They help in enhancing the level of rainfall and minimizing cases of famine. Forested lands also help in permeation of rainwater in the sub-soil and modulating the flow of river waters in both rainy and dry seasons. Forests safeguard not only water but soil as well. A part of the land that is not utilized for the moment is classified as wasteland. This embraces the baked and rocky deserts. High mountainous and uneven lands also fall into this category. The mounting population and advanced standards of living have resulted in an ever-increasing demand for residential land-both in villages and towns. Cities and towns are obligated to grow vertically rather than horizontally. Still then, land is needed to develop industry, commerce, transport and recreational facilities. India has a diverse agro-climate, topography and soil types on the basis of which it has been categorized into various regions. Major part of the country is rainfed. Rainfall, therefore, constitutes an important parameter in the classification of the country into various regions for the purpose of planning. Agro-climatic regions: On the basis of climate India has been divided into 15 agro-climatic zones in combination with soil and other factors that affect the agriculture in the region. This classification was done by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in 1979 through the National Agricultural Research Project. These are: Western Himalayan Region, Eastern Himalayan Region, Lower Gangetic Plains Region, Middle Gangetic Plains Region, Upper Gangetic Plains Region, Trans Gangetic Plains Region, Eastern Plateu and Hill Region, Central Plateau and Hill Region, Western Plateau and Hill Region, Southern Plateau and Hill Region, East Coast Plains and Hill Region, West Coast Plains and Ghat Region, Gujarat Plains and Ghat Region, Western Dry Region, and Island Region.
Agro-ecological regions and sub-regions Agro-ecological regions: The country has also been categorized into 20 agro-ecological regions on a 1:4 million-scale map, based on physiography, soils, climate, growing period and also taking into account available water capacity of the soil, etc. The mapping and classification of the various parts of the country for
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