Energy and power use pattern in production agriculture in Punjab (India)

Punjab is agriculture base state with major crops grown is wheat, paddy, maize, cotton, sugarcane and potato. The cropping intensity is about 185%. A study revealed that irrigation alone consumes 51% of total energy used in operations followed by harvesting & threshing (19%) and seedbed preparation (13%). The three major commercial energy sources such as fertilizers, diesel and electricity together contribute 71% of the total energy input in Punjab agriculture. Therefore, a study was conducted to assess the energy and power use pattern in production agriculture and future requirements. The productivity has improved as the input power increased in the agricultural sector. In the year 1999–2000, the productivity (3.53 t/ha) and power availability (3.44 kW/ha) was almost same. However, the productivity per unit power input decreased from 2.14 t/kW in year 1970–71 to 1.44 t/kW in 1980–81, to 1.06 t/kW in 1990–91 and 1.03 t/kW in 1999–2000. The total energy requirement by the end of year 2009–10 would be about 311 PJ and the power use would be 4.05 kW/ha. The diesel consumption would go up to 1526 million litres from the present use of 1148 million litres. Similarly the electricity consumption will increase to about 9375 million kW in 2009–10 from the present requirement of about 7595 million kW The trend is likely to continue in near future, as farmers are being more dependent on electrical and mechanical power sources due to short age of labour, increased demand on timeliness of operations and their economic ability to reduce drudgery in farm operations. Similarly, use of chemical fertilizer is also annually increasing by 2 to 3 per cent. Power availability is increasing marginally by about 1% annually. However, there would not be any significant change in productivity during the years to come.