energy and agriculture

Energy and Agriculture

 Agriculture has evolved as the largest and most important

human enterprise, comprising not only production but also

processing, packaging, transport and trade and distribution of

food products. Energy is needed in all stages of agriculture from

land preparation, water lifting and pumping to planting and

transplanting, weed control, harvesting, transport and processing.

 Sustainable management of the natural resources like land,

water, air and biodiversity is the mantra for sustainable

Agriculture. The ecological; services provided by nature regulate

and sustain the stability of production in natural ecosystems. The

quality and quantity of energy used are transformed and

consumed all of which is vital to food security.

 Energy use in agriculture follows two extreme patterns.

High external input and highly mechanized factory metal of

agriculture of the advanced countries is so times as in energy

intensive as traditional agriculture.

Very low or nil external input agricultural that is a part of the

subsistence agriculture prevalent in many of the stressed

ecosystem(LEISA).

A direct relationship exists between energy consumption and

agricultural yield. Traditional agriculture systems depend largely

on the metabolic energy of human and animals and solar energy,

where as the energy requirement of modern agriculture are

almost completely met from fossil fuels mostly petroleum.

 Impact of low energy use in Agriculture

  Farmers depend on traditional fuels such as wood

and agricultural residues for cooking and heating and on human

and animal power for primitive agricultural operations.

Aquequate and appropriate energy for income-generating

opportunities is not available primitive energy sources are used

inefficiently and without concern for health hazards, yet have

heavy costs in terms of time, money, drudgery and poverty.

Lack of energy input in agriculture has also led to enormous land

degradation in the form of erosion and deputation of soil organic

matter and soil fertility, which has further lowed productivity and

increased environmental pollution.

Energy and agricultural sustainability

  Thus, both high external input and low-energy

primitive agriculture systems are unsustainable in the long run.

The former are flovoured in their overdependence on fossil fuel

and because of the ecological, environmental and social stress

they create, and the letter because of their inadequate land and

labour productivity to sustain food security and livelihoods.

Sustainable energy management in High – Input

Agriculture    

 Following the principles of thermodynamics, a key

indicator of sustainability is the ratio of energy equivalents of all

the outputs and inputs. The higher  this ratio the more sustainable

the system is

Energy budget in crop production on: sustainability = high

output to input energy ratio.

Output

Energy nutrient

and pesticide

Agro ecosystem

Solar energy

Net

production

The basic way to improve the sustainability of modern

agriculture is to decrease both the direct and embodied external

energy component by increasing their efficiency of use in all

possible agricultural practices. Maintaining high productivity

with an acceptable impact on resources, environmental and

economics is the key to sustainability the used non-polluting

alternative sustainability.

 A multipronged approach to achieving better energy

efficiency along with resource conservation environmental safety

and economic prudence has been adopted in the post decade

through technologies that are holistic and make integrated use of

natural ecological processes and external inputs. Conservation

tillage, integrated pest management, integrated plant nutrient

supply, crop rotation, micro irrigation techniques and precision

agriculture belong to this category.

 Conservation tillage practices were initially introduced to

reduce the cost of mechanization but have turned out to offer

several ecological and economic benefits such as low soil

erosion, reduced runoff, more natural pest control, greater water

storage and infiltration, increased cropping intensity and savings

on inputs. Conservation tillage has become very popular where

farms are large.

 Similarly managing water more efficiently using drip and

sprinkler irrigation and using mulching to improve water storage

and reduce ET are simple ways of improving the productivity of

water, which is likely to be the most limiting resource for

agriculture in the future.

 These practices not only result in energy savings but also

attract other bonuses such as lower nutrient loss, higher

efficiency of input use, and freedom from waterlogging &

salinization. IPM combines several virtues, including cost

reduction, environmental and human safety, prevention of

pesticide resistance and post resurgence, with a favourable

energy balance.

 Biodiversity enhancement through polyculture, crop

rotation, mixed cropping and strip cropping has been shown to

have a variety of positive effects such as conservation. Efficiency

of use of nutrients and water, erosion control, biological pest and

disease control and improvement of soil quality. Integrated

technologies are the best way to balance all factors related to the

sustainability, stability and productivity of agro ecosystems

 Bio mass energy

 Biomass is stored energy that is not subject to seasonal

vagaries, it can produce all forms of energy, such as heat,

electricity, gas and liquid fuel. These can be harnessed to create

small and big industries in rural areas to employment and also to

increase the profitability of the agricultural sector.

 Other renewable sources of energy

 Solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy and hydro and

geothermal tidal energies are being evolved as potential forms of

renewable energy. They are non-polluting, non-emission sources

and are suitable for small to medium-scale operations, especially

in rural and remote areas.

 Solar, wind and bio energy are particularly useful in rural

areas because of this local availability, adaptability to dispersal

small and medium scale energy requirements, reliability and

environmental safety.

 Solar energy is the second fastest growing source of

energy.

 Wind energy is one of the fastest growing forms of

alternative energy.

 Energy has been identified as the second most critical

factor, next only to water, for sustainable development. Attention

to the quantity and quality of energy and the efficiency of its use

in agriculture is crucial for sustainability.

 Energy overuse leaves dirty ecological foot prints whereas

energy poverty creates serious impediments to food security,

livelihoods and human development.

 Energy poor systems require energy infusion, preferably

of renewable kind such as solar, wind and biomass energy.

 Exploiting the food-energy nesses by converting

agricultural by-products to heat or other forms of energy can

create livelihood opportunities in the form of small commercial

enterprises and also mitigate climate change, as biomass is a

carbon-natural resource.