STUDY OF ENERGY REQUIREMENT FOR MAIZE CULTIVATION IN PANCHMAHAL DISTRICT OF MIDDLE GUJARAT

Energy analysis of crop production is essential to find out the current energy requirement as well as the future demand of energy in crop cultivation. A survey was conducted through structured questionnaire to 93 randomly selected farmers in four villages (Jakhripura, Kandach, Kankanpur and Ganagata) of talukas Godhra, Khanpur and Kalol. The raw data obtained were analyzed after converting data into energy equivalents. It was concluded that fertilizer application consumed maximum operation wise energy with a value of 7010.55 MJ/ha followed by seed bed preparation with the value of 3684.72 MJ/ha. According to so urce wise, chemical fertilizer consumed maximum energy, about 36.09 % of total energy consumption and then after fuel energy 22.62 % of total energy consumption. The total input energy requirement for maize production in Panchmahals district 18831.07 MJ/ha . Total output energy for maize cultivation was 83894.62 MJ/ha. Energy productivity of maize in the study area was found to be 0.25 kg/MJ. The net energy return from the cultivation of maize in Panchmahal district is 65063.55 MJ/ha