Energy Budgeting and Economics of Rice Based Cropping System under Resource Conservation Technologies in Foothill of Himalayan Region

A field experiment was conducted at Norman E Borlaug Crop Research Center, Pantnagar, India during 2011-12 and 2012-13. The experiment was laid in a factorial split plot design with resource conservation technology practices i.e., Tillage system (conventional and reduced tillage), Mulching (no and straw mulch) and Fertility levels (100 and 75% RDF) were compared in three rice based cropping systems rice-wheat (CS1); rice-vegetable pea-greengram (CS2); and rice-potato-maize (CS3) sequences. The aim of the research was to evaluate the energy use efficiency of different rice based cropping systems under resource conservation technology (RCT) practices. The results revealed that total system productivity (TSP) of cropping system was higher in reduced tillage system (9.8% higher) when compared to conventional tillage. The greatest crop sequence total system productivity of 21420 kg ha-1 was achieved with paddy straw mulched treatments. Consequently, CS3 recorded higher total system productivity followed by rice-vegetablepea-greengram system (CS2). The result further revealed that a combined application of RCT required 6-10% less energy requirement than conventional system while generated 99-143 and 25-52% higher output energy in CS3 and CS2, respectively over conventional practices in rice-wheat system (CS1). RCT practices recorded higher efficiency of energy levels as compared to conventional systems. The economic analysis also revealed that the maximum benefits could be obtained from resource conservation practices.