Energy and carbon footprints of wheat establishment following different rice residue management strategies vis-à-vis conventional tillage coupled with rice residue burning in north-western India

Pritpal Singh, Gurdeep Singh and G.P.S. Sodhi

Energy, 2020, vol. 200, issue C

Abstract: Energy and carbon (C) footprints have close nexus in agriculture. Agri-inputs are energy intensive and lead to significant C equivalent (CE) emissions. We studied energy and C footprints during wheat establishment following different rice residue management (RRM) strategies: residue retention with Happy Seeder (HS); removal after bailing + zero till drill (ZT); incorporation with rotavator tillage + drill (RT) and mould board plough tillage + drill (MBP) vis-à-vis burning + conventional tillage + drill (CT)to identify options for balancing energy, C footprints and C sequestration. Total energy input (EI) with residue retention was significantly (p < 0.05) lower by 1540.9–3884.5 MJ ha−1 (5.9–13.8%) than residue removal/burning. Although, energy output (EO) was significantly lower with residue retention/removal, yet energy productivity (EP) did not differ significantly. Total CE emissions were highest in CT and lowest in ZT. Fertilizer-N was the major hotspot of energy (37.5–45.2% of EI) and C footprints (53.6–87.9% of total CE emissions). As compared to CT, residue retention offers reduction in C and energy footprints ∼14.1 and 12.9%, respectively. Results reveal that rice residue burning is not a viable option as it leaves high C footprints and lowers the amount of C added to soil organic C pool and C sustainability.

Keywords: Wheat establishment; Rice residue management; Carbon footprints; Energy indices; Carbon sustainability; Carbon sequestration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544220306617
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:200:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220306617

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.117554

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().