Assessment of water energy food nexus at farm level for sustainable agriculture

The present study aimed to understand the water-energy-food nexus among diverse crops at the command area level through five indicators. The research was carried out in South India, Periyamuthur Village located in the Krishnagiri dam command area. Paddy, jasmine, betel, mango, and coconut are the major crops for which nexus analysis was conducted. A geodatabase created from the cadastral map and Adangal register formed the base to generate thematic Maps on Crop classification, Irrigation wells and farm areas, that helped to identify the sample plots for primary data collection. The indicators include water consumption, energy consumption, Water productivity, Energy productivity and Water Energy Food Nexus Index (WEFNI). Among all crops, betel has the highest water consumption of 7627.634 m3/acre while coconut has the highest energy usage of 2900.40 MJ/acre. Despite its higher consumption, betel has higher water and energy productivity of 2.360 kg/m3 and 9.929 kg/MJ respectively because of their high yields. Maximum and minimum normalization were used to standardize the indicators. The water energy food nexus index was highest for jasmine at 0.828, which implies the crop has high suitability and sustainability. The management practice adopted for Jasmine is satisfied and it was lowest for coconut at 0.095, which implies the poor management of resources. Paddy has a WEFNI of 0.21, which is relatively low based on its spatial coverage (40%). The management options to reduce water and energy consumption for paddy were suggested. WEFNI helps in evaluating the present status and developing suitable strategies to improve the WEFNI thereby improving the water and energy productivity for sustainable agriculture.