Energy use efficiency and green house gas emissions from integrated crop-livestock systems in semi-arid ecosystem of deccan plateau in southern india

Abstract

Integrated crop-livestock system is the default in vogue farming system followed in semi arid Deccan plateau in Southern India. Energy flow and environmental impact plays an anchor role for the sustainability of any farming system. The objective of the present study is to know the energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in the integrated crop-livestock systems in study area. Primarily data was collected from 36 farmers by bench mark survey questionnaire. The study area includes 54.53 ha of cultivated land, 177 dairy cattle, 466 sheep and 129 poultry birds. Total input energy required for crop production and livestock management was 1598441.0 and 6168311.9 MJ respectively, output energy generated was 9063909.8 and 408331.0 MJ respectively. Even livestock enterprise have shown negative energy balance (-5759980.9 MJ), overall system has shown positive energy balance of 1705487.9 MJ as crop enterprise offset the ill energy efficiency of livestock enterprise. Rice emits highest amount of CO2eq (3099.4 kg CO2eq ha-1) among crops in study, around 50% is contributed by submergence (continuous flooding). Total GHG emission from the study area was 532215.3 kg CO2eq. Out of which, 26.1% and 73.9% of the emissions were emitted by crop (138637.3 kg CO2eq) and livestock enterprise (393578.0 kg CO2eq). Both the cases crop enterprise has greater advantage over the livestock enterprise. The key policy implication from the current study was integrated crop-livestock system will sustain in long run, as less energy use and higher GHG emissions of livestock enterprise will be nullified by the crop enterprise.