Pattern of energy use in paddy in a typical dryland village of Jammu Region-A case study

A dryland village has been selected to identify various energy intensive operations for raising paddy. The observations on inputs used for various field activities have been collected on a predevised proforma. The farmers used 85.6% of recommended seed rates and 12% of recommended FYM The fertilizer application was also less than the recommended values. Harvesting required highest human energy (283.28 MJ/ha) followed by transplanting (261.33 MJ/ha), whereas, DAP energy utilization was highest for puddling (395.92 MJ/ha). Marginal farmers utilized their resources efficiently and recorded profit margin of Rs. 5375.34 per ha compared to Rs. 4990.45 and Rs. 4480.43 per ha for small and medium farmers which indicates the scope of mechanization in the selected village. The benefit-cost ratio ranged from 0.80:1 to 0.62:1 for different farm categories on total product basis.