Energy input–output analysis and mechanization status for cultivation of rice and maize crops in Sikkim

Abstract

Rice and maize are main cereal crops cultivated in Sikkim.  In this paper energy input–output and the level of agricultural mechanization for cultivation of rice and maize in Sikkim state of India has been presented.  The data were collected on area under rice and maize crops, sources of power and agricultural tools/implements used total production through village survey.  It has been observed that the traditional practices of cultivation of rice and maize crops consumed an average energy input of 3338.984 MJ ha^-1 and 4386.435 MJ ha^-1 respectively.  Data analysis showed that about 60% of the total input energy in the present cultivation practices comes from human and animal power sources.  The output–to–input energy ratio was observed to be 7.66 and 5.86 for rice and maize, respectively.  The observational estimate showed that average productivity of rice and maize crop in the region is only 924.0 kg ha^-1 and 431.0 kg ha^-1, respectively, which is very low.  Mechanization and machine energy indices were found to stand at a value of 0.3618 and 0.3244, respectively for rice crop cultivation, and 0.2612 and 0.2111, respectively for maize crop cultivation.  The average farm power availability in the state has been estimated as 0.70 kW ha^-1.

Keywords: agricultural mechanization in Sikkim, energy input and output, rice and maize crops, grain productivity