Abstract
Energy and environment are the key concerns in todays’ agriculture. This study investigated energy balance and environmental impact of rice and wheat production systems in terms of energy ratio, impact of energy inputs to the crop yield and CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions under terai and hill geographical regions of Nepal. Primary data were collected from 139 randomly selected farms by using structured questionnaire. The results revealed that the total energy consumption in rice and wheat production were 9.70 GJ/hm2 (terai) to 11.78 GJ/hm2 (hill) and 8.40 GJ/hm2 (hill) to 10.95 GJ/hm2 (terai), respectively. The energy balance of rice and wheat production were found 46.33 GJ/hm2 (hill) to 59.29 GJ/hm2 (terai) and 27.14 GJ/hm2 (terai) to 38.52 GJ/hm2 (hill), respectively, where energy use efficiency in terai and hill were found to be 7.14 and 4.97 in rice, and 3.49 and 5.59 in wheat, respectively. The contribution of fertilizer on impacts was significant among other energy inputs in rice and wheat production in both geographical regions. The CO2e emissions from rice and wheat were higher by 52% and 78% in hill as compared to respective crop rice (1786 kg CO2e/hm2) and wheat (843 kg CO2e/hm2) in terai. This study showed that rice production system in terai is more energy and environmentally efficient, whilst wheat production in hill is more energy efficient. Keywords: energy indices, environmental impact, productivity, profitability, GHG emissions, rice, wheat, sensitivity analysis DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20191201.3270 Citation: Pokhrel A, Soni P. Energy balance and environmental impacts of rice and wheat production: A case study in Nepal. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2019; 12(1): 201–207.
Highlights
Rice (Oryza sativa) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) are staple crops at a global scale, and are the key source of employment and income for rural populations
The level of farm mechanization is increasing in terai, where the most of farmers use farm machinery for land preparation, irrigation and threshing purposes. 3.2 Forms of energy used in rice and wheat production systems
Energy balance and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are the key indicators of sustainable crop production systems
Summary
Rice (Oryza sativa) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) are staple crops at a global scale, and are the key source of employment and income for rural populations. The productivity of rice and wheat are relatively lower (3.4 t/hm and 2.5 t/hm, respectively) as compared to average yield of South Asian countries (3.7 t/hm and 2.7 t/hm, respectively), which is the major challenges to meet the demand of feeding the growing population[2]. The productivity enhancement is the most practical way to increase the production, which demands intensive crop cultivation practices and inputs use. In order to increase the crop production and productivity, todays’ agriculture has become an energy intensive sector with many of its activities attributing to the energy inputs. Energy use in crop production systems has been increasing in response to increasing populations, limited agricultural land and economic growth. As energy inputs in agriculture are speedily increasing and accruing several benefits to the farmers, but it adversely affect the environment by deteriorating natural resources and contributing to global warming substantially through increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions[5]
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