1
ENERGY USE PATTERN IN AGRICULTURE
IN
A CHANGING TRIBAL AREA…A MICRO LEVEL ANALYSIS
*SARADA P MOHAPATRA & **HARA P SAHOO
* LECTURER IN BOTANY, S.C.SCOLLEGE, PURI, ORISSA
E MAILID-
** READER IN BOTANY, RAVENSHAWUNIVERSITY, CUTTACK, ORISSA
ABSTRACT- A micro level analytical study of energy use pattern in agriculture was conducted in the eleventribal villages of three Panchayats of Bolangir Dist. To statistically prove the relationship between the four factors i.e. income level,area under irrigated cropped land,area under unirrigated cropped land,familysize and the agricultural energy consumption level. The tribal Panchayats requires 10.8 lakh MJ of energy per annum (equal to 3 lakh units of electricity) of cultivate crops in 36 ha.of irrigated land60 ha. of unirrigated land.On an average the Panchayats consumes 11194 MJ of energy per ha. of cropped area per annum for agricultural operations.
KEY WORDS-Joules,HYV seeds,correlation,stepwise multiple regression,FYM.
INTRODUCTION
Energy resources especially fossil fuelsare becoming scarce.Population on the other hand continuously escalates. There fore food requirements steadily increase to meet the growing demand for food, agricultural sector is looked for.Infactthe agricultural sector in India not only provides food to all but also provide employment to 70% of population & provides 40% of national income just by consuming only 10% of the commercial form of energy. (Swami Nathan, 1982)But still the hungry India demands more & more from agricultural sector.That is why higher & higher agricultural yields are aimed.To fulfill this aim more & more energy inputs likefertilizer,pesticides,tractor,threshers,pumpset & HYV (High Yielding Variety) seeds are used. All these inputs directly or indirectly consume lots of electricity,petrol,diesel & coal,so studies at micro level are very much needed because energy requirements for agricultural activities differ from area to area depending on the environmental conditions& agricultural practices (UNEP, 1985). The present research paper deals with the study which analyze the agricultural energy use pattern in 11 villages of 3 Panchayats of Bolangir District.
METHODOLOGY
In order to find out the total energy consumption, questionnaire was administered at household level in the 11 villages of 3 Panchayats of Bolangir Dist. The District of Bolangir (Fig-1) is flanked in the northwest by Gandhamardhan Hills, a name of Ramayana fame, the northeast by the rock infestedMahanadi. It lies between 20011’40’’-21005’08’’ northern latitude & 82041’15’’-83040’22’’ east longitude. The district is situated in the valley of rives like Ang & Tel. It is in the Western high land of OrissaState with an average rainfall of about 1230 cm and red sandy to red loamy soil nature. Out of the 6 million tribal people of Orissa, about 62 notified tribes are seen in Balangir. (Mohapatra, 1993).
FIG-1 ROAD MAP OF BOLANGIR DISTRICT OF ORISSA
The three villages i.e. Chikalbahal, Kudasingha & Bhutiyarbahal dominated by tribal ( Tripathy and Behera, 2007) called Kondha, Sabar , Gond, Mahar etc. are taken for study, which is situated about 26 km away from Balangir town. The households were selected on stratified random basis. This way roughly 10% of the household in each village of the Panchayat was interviewed. Out of 86 households surveyed, 19 household did not have agricultural land.Hence they are treated as landless household. Thus the collected data related to energy were converted to energy units for comparison (Singh, 1988). So throughout the paper the standard International energy unit ‘Joules’ was used to express the energy consumption level. Thus the obtained energy data were grouped and analyzedvillage wise,sourcewise and farm size wise. The details of revenue data is given in Table-1.
TABLE – 1
Details of Revenue Data of Land and Forest
Sl. No. / Name of the Panchayat / Major Community (SC/ ST) / Total no. of population / TotalLand (In Ha) / TotalForest (In Ha)1. / Chikalbahal / Sabar, Gonda / 412 / 139.66 / 12.81
2. / Bhutiyarbahal / Mahar / 290 / 177.69 / 16.10
3. / Kudasingha / Kondha / 245 / 100.08 / 4.36
Total / 947 / 417.43 / 33.27
To determine the factors responsible for low or high level of energy consumption in agriculture four independent variable(i.e. 4 factors) viz.,1.Annual income 2. Family size 3.Area under irrigated crop 4. Area under un irrigated crops has been included. The information related to the 4 factors was obtained from household survey. Then with the help of a computer by using SPSS package, pair wise correlation and stepwisemultiple regression analysis have been worked out by taking four factors as independent variable & each type of energy level like human,animal,diesel etc. as dependent variables.
RESULTS & DISCUSSION
1. Village wise energy use pattern in agriculture:
As a whole in 3 Panchayats 67 farms consume 10.8 lakh mega joule (MJ) of energy per annum (equal to 3 lakh units of electricity; 1 MJ=106 joule) to cultivate crops in 96.37 ha. of land ( Table-2).Out of the 11 villages Bhutiyarbahal ranks first in gross sown area and agricultural energy consumption.It consumes 3.5 lakh MJ for cultivating crops in 16 ha. , Followed by Bandhkeda,which consume 1.7 lakh MJ for 8 ha.Cropland. In Nuapada all the selected sample households own only unirrigated land(Table-2).So the absence of irrigated cropped land is the major factor for its low level of agricultural energy consumption.
By analyzing Table-3 it can be proposed that the village Bhutiyarbahal ranks first in total agricultural energy consumption per ha. Of cropped land asit consumes 21345 MJ of energy (equal to 5929 units of electricity) per ha. Perannum.The 2nd rank goes to Bandhakeda which consumes 21101 MJ of energy per ha. Per annum. Nuapada gets the last rank (Table-4) by consuming 3548 MJ of energy per ha. Per annum.
2. Sourcewise agricultural energy consumption:
Table-5 reveals that in 3 Panchayats a high proportion of energy (62%) is used for agricultural purpose in the form of farm yard manure (FYM) followed by chemical fertilizer of about 25% of total agricultural energy .Another interesting aspect is the usage of green leaves as manure in the level is about 4.6% of total agricultural energy but at village level it varies from 0% to 9.9% (Table-5).The other forms of energy like diesel,electricity and pesticides are used in very small amounts. The proportions of these three forms of energy to total agricultural energy are almost zero.
3. Farm sizewise agricultural energy consumption:
It is evident from Table-6 that the medium size farms (2.01-4.00 ha. Of agricultural land) use nearly 50% of the total agricultural energy consumption; followed by the small sizes farms (1.01-2.00 ha.) which use 33% of the total agricultural energy. The 3rd position goes to the marginal size farms (0.01-1.00 ha.).The farms falling under this category use 13.16% of the total agricultural energy. The large size farms use 3.5% of the total agricultural energy (Table-6). However it is true that most of the large farmsize holders do not practice intensive farming (Gupta, 1981).Hence they may use less amount of agricultural energy, when compared to other farmsize holders. The results of correlation analysis (Table-7) show that all forms of energy are positively correlated with the irrigated cropped area .Similarly all forms of energy except bullock energy are positively correlated with annual income. All forms of energy except electric energy are also positively correlated with family size (Table-7).
The stepwise multiple regression equation in Table-8 indicate that the variation in energy consumption level are mostly caused by the factor called as irrigated cropped area i.e. v4 i.e. the irrigated cropped area determines the level of energy consumption whereas the variable v5 i.e. the un irrigated cropped area is responsible for variation in the human & bullock forms of energy consumption .The variables v2 i.e. annual income in many equation , enters in second step .That means its contribution to total variance in the agricultural energy consumption is less when compared to the irrigated cropped area.The regression equation indicate that mainly 3 factors viz.irrigated cropped area, un irrigated cropped area and annual income determines the level of all forms of energy used in agriculture.The R2values in the equation range of“between 0.11 to 0. 68” that mean in general 11% to 68% of the variation in each of form of agricultural energy consumption are caused by these factors.
CONCLUSION
If modernization takes place in the agricultural sector of this tribal area the present energy use pattern may change (Smill, 1983). In that situation new forms of energy like chemical fertilizer,pesticides,diesel and electricity may overtake the traditional forms of energywill this change be for better in terms of quality of life of people and eco-development of the hilly tract?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Sincere thanks to the villagers of 3 Panchayats, for giving the details of household data. Thanks are also due to Prof. G.P.Nayak Head of Botany department of RavenshawUniversity, cuttack for his valuable suggestion
REFERENCES
1. Gupta, C.L, and Rao, U.K,(1981): “Energy inputs for irrigated farming with mixed cropping: a Micro level survey in Pondicherry region”, Urja, Vol.12, no.5,pp 1-6.
2. Mahapatra, S – The tangled web tribal life & culture, Orissa Sahitya Academy Publ., BBSR, 1- 148 pp (1993)
3.Singh, A.L and Banerjee, S(1988); “ Pattern of Energy input and its impact on agricultural production in Agra Division”, The National Geographical Journal Of India, Vol.34, No.2,pp.126-133.
4. Smil, V and others(1983): “Technological changes and the energy cost of U.S. Grain Corn”, Energy in Agriculture, Vol.2,pp.177-192
5. Swaminathan.M.S (1982): “Energy for and from the agricultural sector”,Yojna, vol.xxxvi nos.1&2, pp. 41-44.
6. Tripathy, N.K. & Behera, N.K. – Ethnobotany of fibre usage in Balangir District of Orissa, Ad. Plant Science 20(II) 559-562 pp, 2007.
7. United Nations Environment Programme (1985): “Energy supply /demand in rural areas in developing countries, report no. ERS-11-84 (Nairobi: UNEP).
Table2. Village-wise and Source-wise Energy Use Pattern for Agricultural Activities in the Panchayat
(Energy Units in Mega Joules* per annum)
SL Name of Village Total Cropped** Energy Source
No. Area in ha. Human Bullock Farm Yard Green Chemical Diesel Electricity Total
Manure Leaves Fertilizer Energy
Irrigated unirri
Gated
1. Chikalbahal 5.03 10.24 7302.407 2634.100 54697.002 8089.002 31857.840 0.014 0.007 104580.810
2. Phatkera 6.60 2.83 1819.638 675.750 28062.344 2005.647 3034.080 0.014 0.000 35597.463
3. Bandhakeda 4.53 3.64 5350.941 4335.400 87139.345 13370.980 62198.640 0.031 0.000 172395.337
4. Kudasinga 4.85 3.23 4503.780 4263.850 50809.724 5348.392 45511.200 0.017 0.000 110904.963
5. Nuapara 0.00 10.10 4503.897 3646.400 27691.300 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 35841.597
6. Dhanradadar 1.21 4.84 2823.201 1462.800 17836.887 1337.098 334.080 0.003 0.000 26494.069
7. Siris 0.81 5.6 3255.093 3197.225 24938.883 1337.98 0.000 0.000 0.000 32728.299
8. Kuthurla 2.51 5.25 3599.511 2628.800 34260.462 4813.553 3034.080 0.000 0.013 48336.419
9. Nuniadhipa 6.07 2.42 1784.065 556.500 35382.956 0.000 6068.160 0.019 0.000 43791.700
10. Rajamunda 1.51 4.85 4199.229 2790.450 96388.054 2674.196 16687.440 0.004 0.001 122739.374
11. Bhutiyarbahal 9.11 7.07 16042.779 8943.750 210763.415 11031.066 98607.600 0.019 0.016 345388.638
Panchayat Total 36.25 60.12 55652.541 35135.025 667970.372 50007.463 270033.120 0.111 0.037 1078798.669
Total Households Surveyed= 86; Landless Household =19
*1 mega Joule (MJ) = 106 Joules
** Total Cropped Area = Net area sown + Area sown more than once in a year
Table 3. Energy Use per Hectare of Cropped Area in the Panchayat(Units in MJ* /ha. Of cropped land per annum)
Energy Source
Name of village Number of Human Bullock Farm Yard Green Chemical Diesel Electricity Total Agricultural
Energy
Households Manure Leaves Fertilizer used per ha. Of
Cropped area
1. Chikalbahal 12 477.59 172.28 3577.31 529.07 2083.57 0.00 0.00 6839.82
2. Phatkera 3 530.51 197.01 8181.01 584.74 884.57 0.001 0.00 10378.27
3. Bandhakeda 5 654.95 530.65 10665.77 1639.59 7613.05 0.004 0.00 21101.02
4. Kudasinga 10 615.32 527.70 6288.33 661.93 5632.57 0.002 0.00 13725.86
5. Nuapara 9 445.93 361.03 2741.71 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3548.67
6. Dhanradadar 5 466.64 241.79 2948.25 221.01 501.50 0.00 0.00 4379.18
7. Siris 5 503.88 494.93 3860.51 206.98 0.00 0.00 0.00 5066.30
8. Kuthurla 10 463.85 338.76 4415.01 620.30 390.99 0.00 0.001 6228.92
9. Nuniadhipa 5 210.14 65.55 4167.60 0.00 714.74 0.002 0.00 5158.03
10. Rajamunda 10 660.26 438.75 15155.35 420.27 2623.81 0.00 0.00 19298.64
11. Bhutiyarbahal 12 991.52 552.77 13026.17 681.77 6094.41 0.001 0.00 21346.64
Panchayat Average 557.49 364.58 6931.31 518.91 2802.05 0.001 0.00 11194.34
Total Households Surveyed= 86; Landless Household =19
*1 mega Joule (MJ) = 106 Joules
Table 4. villllages and their Ranks in the Panchayat
With respect to First rank Last rank
1. Total Cropped area BhutiyarbahalPhatkera
2. Total irrigated Cropped areaBhutiyarbahalNuapara
3.Total agricultural energy consumption BhutiyarbahalDhanradadar
4. Total agricultural energy consumption BhutiyarbahalNuapara
per ha. of cropped area
5. Fertilizer energy used per ha. of cropped areaBandhakedaNuapara & Siris
6. Manure energy used per ha. of cropped areaRajamundaNuapara
7. Green manure used per ha. of cropped areaBandhakedaNuapara & Nuniadhipa
8. Human muscle power used per ha. of cropped areaBhutiyarbahalNuniadhipa
9. Bullock power used per ha. of cropped areaBhutiyarbahalNuniadhipa
Table5. Percentage of Each from of Energy to Total Energy used per ha. Cropped Area for Agricultural Operations
In the Panchayat
from of Energy
Name of Village Human Bullock Farm Yard Manure Green Manure Chemical Total
1. Chikalbahal6.982.52 52.30 7.74 30.46 100.00
2. Phatkera 5.211.90 78.84 5.63 8.52 100.00
3. Bandhakeda3.482.51 50.55 7.76 36.08 100.00
4. Kudasinga 4.483.84 45.82 4.82 41.04 100.00
5. Nuapara12.9810.17 77.26 0.60 0.00 100.00
6. Dhanradadar10.665.52 67.32 5.05 11.45 100.00
7. Siris9.959.77 76.19 4.09 0.00 100.00
8. Kuthurla7.455.44 70.87 9.96 6.28 100.00
9. Nuniadhipa4.071.27 80.80 0.00 13.46 100.00
10. Rajamunda3.422.27 78.53 2.18 13.60 100.00
11. Bhutiyarbahal4.462.59 61.03 3.19 28.55 100.00
The Panchayat5.163.26 61.91 4.64 25.03 100.00
Note:1. Percentage of forms of energy like diesel, electricity and pesticides to total agricultural energy used is almost Zero.
2. This table was [prepared based on the figures in Table 2
Table 6. Farm-Size and Agricultural Energy Use Pattern in the Panchayat
(Energy Units in MJ* Per annum)
Energy source
Farm-size Sample Total Human Bullock Farm Yard Green Chemical Diesel Elecctri Total Energy Use
In ha. House- Cropped manure leaves Fertilizer city Agril. Per ha. of
Holds land in ha. Energy Cropped land
Marginal 23 12.54 7324.588 5294.760 105338.588 6484.923 22755.600 0.002 0.010 147198.471 11738.315
(0.01-1.00) (13.01%) (13.65%)
Small 19 25.77 20219.411 14140.400 200563.122 9159.122 103158.72 0.021 0.013 356241.377 13823.880
(1.01-2.00) (26.74%) (33.02%)
Medium 23 45.92 25224.658 14215.865 325005.865 34363.418 138050.64 0.069 0.014 546860.413 11691.211
(2.01-4.00) (47.65%) (49.76%)
Large 2 12.14 2883.884 1484.000 28062.34 5 0.000 6068.16 0.019 0.000 38498.408 3171.203
(4.01 and above) (12.60%) (3.57%)
Total 67 96.37 55652.541 35135.025 667970.372 50007.463 270033.12 0.111 0.037 1778798.669 11194.341
(100.00%) (100.00%)
Total household survey = 86: Landless Households=19
*1 MJ = 106 kilo Joules
Table7. Correlation Values
AnnualFamilyIrrigatedUnirriagated
IncomeSizeCropped areaCropped area
Human Muscle Power.14.16.27.43
Bullock Power-.04.07.09.34
Manure Energy.27.43.46.18
Fertilizer energy.37.11.60.13
Green Manure Energy.20.02.50-.11
Electricity Energy.80-.04.30-.20
Diesel Energy.75.18.81-.07
Table 8. Step wise Multiple Regression Equation
Human Music PowerV1=.32188+.40328V5+.52698V2(R2 =.35853)
Bullock PowerV1=.22788+.25257V5+1.54261V3(R2 =.11257)
Manure EnergyV1=2.78510+9.20756V4+2.41080V5(R2 =.44666)
Fertilizer energyV1=1.86033+6.67099V4-.00013V2(R2 =.40084)
Green Manure EnergyV1=.48400+1.55290V4-.00004V2(R2 =.37505)
Electricity EnergyV1= .00042+.00123V4-.00000004V2(R2 =.17014)
Diesel EnergyV1=-.00026+.00219V4+.00000005V2(R2 =.67867)
Note: V2=Annual Income
V3=Family Size
V4=Irrigated Cropped area
V5=un Irrigated Cropped area