Energy-Carbon Footprint vis-à-vis System Productivity and Profitability of Diversified Crop Rotations in Semi-arid Plains of North-West India

• Published in: Journal of soil science and plant nutrition Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 2026 - 2041
• Main Authors: Meena, Om Prakash, Sammauria, Rakesh, Gupta, Ashok Kumar, Gupta, Kailash Chandra, Behera, Biswaranjan, Saxena, Rani, Yadav, Malu Ram, Singh, Pratibha, Meena, Ravi Kumar, Raza, Md Basit, Anil, Ajin S., Lal, Milan Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-06-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural practices; Agriculture; Aridity; Barley; Beans; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carbon; Carbon footprint; Cereal crops; Climate change; Clusters; Crop diversification; Crop residues; Crop rotation; Crops; Diversification; Ecology; Economics; Efficiency; Emissions; Energy consumption; Environment; Environmental effects; Experiments; Farm income; Farming; Fertilizers; Footprint analysis; Gardens & gardening; Geometry; Groundnuts; Irrigation; Irrigation water; Legumes; Life Sciences; Millet; Natural resources; Onions; Original Paper; Pennisetum glaucum; Plant Sciences; Productivity; Profitability; Soil Science & Conservation; Sustainability; Vegetables; Wheat; India; Carbon emission; Energy use efficiency; Non-renewable and renewable energy; Diversification; Pearl millet equivalent yield
• ISSN: 0718-9508; 0718-9516
• DOI: 10.1007/s42729-022-00791-2

Purpose
Conventional agriculture practice without proper diversification of crop rotations has become more energy-intensive having deteriorating effects on the environment due to high carbon emissions. Diversification of existing crop rotations for obtaining higher productivity and profitability per unit energy and carbon consumption is necessary to sustain the livelihood of farmers and ensure environmental safety.
Methods
A field study was conducted in a randomized complete block design with 9 crop rotations involving 14 different crops to assess the system productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability in terms of energy and carbon footprint in the semi-arid plains of India. The cereal-based crop rotation pearl millet-wheat-pearl millet-wheat is the conventional crop rotation of the region. The experimentation period (2010–2016) consists of 3 cycles of crop rotations with a 2-year rotational period each.
Results
The study revealed that groundnut-wheat-cluster bean-onion (Gnut-Wh-Cb-O) crop rotation resulted in significantly higher system productivity (44.5%) and profitability (60.8%) with lower energy consumption (5.2%) and carbon footprint (21.8%) as compared to that of the conventional pearl millet-wheat-pearl millet-wheat (Pm-Wh-Pm-Wh) rotation. Another crop rotation, pearl millet-wheat-cluster bean-barley (Pm-Wh-Cb-Bly), with 36.4% lower irrigation water energy requirement than that of Gnut-Wh-Cb-O rotation, gave significantly higher system productivity (14.6%) and profitability (23.2%) than that of Pm-Wh-Pm-Wh.
Conclusions
The study concluded that the groundnut-wheat-cluster bean-onion rotation (when irrigation water is not limited) and pearl millet-wheat-cluster bean-barley (when irrigation water is limited) would be the most productive, profitable, and energy and carbon-efficient crop rotation in semi-arid plains of North-West India that could be sustainable in the long run without having adverse impacts on climate change.
Graphical abstract