Abstract
Smallholder agriculture has made an increasing use of subsidized mechanization and energy inputs to reduce short-term risks in semi-arid conditions in north-west India. However, geographic patterns of production and scale of mechanization are straining resources and increasing the risk of serious degradation of natural resources. In this paper, the possibility of maximizing the revenue and energy returns in the agricultural sector at village level to fulfil the food, fuel, and feed requirements of the village has been attempted. This paper describes the energy flows through four subsystems of smallholder agricultural village: crop system; non-crop land uses; livestock systems; and households in a semi-arid region in India. By employing a multi-objective programming model, changes in agricultural activities required to optimize energy use are estimated so that economic conditions and local energy utilization of the village can be improved and energy import kept to a minimum.
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