Determination and modelling input energy used in wheat production in India using artificial neural network

The exorbitant dependence on energy inputs has been posing substantial economic and ecological threats to the prospects of Indian agriculture. This research aims to determine and model the input energy used in wheat production in India. Primary household data from 256 farmers were collected from 4 different districts of the western part of Uttar Pradesh state using structured questionnaires. On average energy consumption in wheat production was 29612.43 MJ/hectares, with urea (47%), diesel (31.5%) and electricity (9.8%) contributing most to the energy intake. ANN model was used to capture the behaviour of input energy using various farm inputs and socio-economic factors and was seen to outperform MLR modelling technique.