ENERGY SCENARIO OF MADHYA-PRADESH (INDIA) AGRICULTURE AND ITS FUTURE REQUIREMENTS

The adoption of high yielding varieties, expansion of irrigation facil ities, mechanization, and fertilizer-diesel-electricity combination ha ve pushed the demand for commercial energy to a new height. The energy requirements for crop production for the year 1990-1991 were estimate d, and the area under different crops was projected for the year 2000- 2001 and 2005-2006. The total energy needs in 1990-1991 were estimated at 0.14 EJ (1 EJ = 10(18) J) and will be 0.26 EJ in 2000-2001 and 0.5 5 EJ in 2005-2006, resulting in an increase of 85% in 2000-2001 over t he energy needs for the year 1990-1991. For irrigated crops, the main source of energy was fertilizers followed by electricity and diesel. H owever, for rain fed crops, the maximum energy was consumed in the for m of seeds. In physical terms, for the year 1990-1991, there was a nee d of 2333 million units of electricity (1 unit = 1 kWh), 134 million l itres of diesel, 0.460 million tons of nitrogenous fertilizers and 0.0 03 million tons of pesticide chemical. There would be an increase in t he requirement of seeds for paddy, soyabean, maize, wheat, gram and mu stard, whereas the requirement of seeds for sorghum, cotton, tuar and sugarcane will decrease with respect to their needs for the year 1990- 1991[2]. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd