|
Theme
of the week:
Situation Assessment Survey
Some Aspects of Farming:
7. Energy Used for Different Activities
*
1.
Introduction
Situation
Assessment Survey of Farmers conducted along with AIDIS Survey and Land
Holding Survey by NSSO in their 59th round during January –
December 2003 gave some insight into the use of energy by farmers for
different activities from different sources of energy.
The
survey collected data on energy use for different economic activities of
farmer households such as ploughing, irrigation, harvesting, threshing, cane
crushing, transport, cooking, and lighting along with eight different
sources of energy used. The eight sources of energy are electricity,
diesel/petrol/kerosene, solar energy, LPG, gobar gas, dung cake, firewood,
animal power and other sources.
However,
it may be noted that for each activity, the ‘percentage of farmer
households using a specific energy source’ refers to the percentage of
such households among households reporting the use of non-human energy for
the activity in question.
The
Primary source of energy here refers to the source from which energy is
usually available i.e., most often available during the total time spent on
the activity.
This
note, seventh in the series, attempts to give a brief review on the above
subject based on the data published by NSSO in their report no. 496 titled
‘Some Aspects of Farming’.
The
definitions and concepts of different terms used are given in the Annexure.
2.
Use of Different Source of Energy
|
Table
1: Number of Farmer Households Reporting Use of Different Sources of
Energy
|
|
Source
of Energy
|
Number
of Households Reporting in ' 00
|
Percent
to Total
|
|
Diesel/Petrol/Kerosene
|
309951
|
39.2
|
|
Animal
Power
|
173551
|
21.9
|
|
Firewood
|
136870
|
17.3
|
|
Electricity
|
132798
|
16.8
|
|
Dung
Cake
|
24726
|
3.1
|
|
LPG
|
9991
|
1.3
|
|
Gobar
Gas
|
3001
|
0.4
|
|
Solar
|
458
|
0.1
|
|
All
Sources
|
791345
|
100.0
|
|
Source:
NSSO (2005), Some Aspects of
Farming, 59th Round
(
jan-Dec 2003), Report No.496
|
At
the all-India level, 79.1 million households have reported the using of
energy from different sources during the reference year of the survey, Among
different sources, diesel/petrol/kerosene has been reported to have been
used by maximum number of farmer households numbering 31.0 million farmer
households, or about 39 per cent of the total reported farmer households.
Animal power, next in the rank as a source of energy, was used by 17.4
million farmer households and their share
works out to 22 per cent. Households numbering 13.7 million (17.3 per
cent) reported the use of firewood as a source of energy, followed closely
by 13.3 million farmer households with the use of electricity. Use of other
sources such as LPG, gobar gas, dung cake and solar energy were reported by
about 3.8 million households, which formed a very small share of about 5 per
cent in all reporting farmer households.
3.
Energy used for Different activities
|
Table
2: Number of Farmer Households Using Energy for Different Activity
|
|
Activity
|
Number
of Households Reporting Use of Energy by Activity ( ‘ 00)
|
|
Ploughing
|
782038
|
|
Irrigation
|
391047
|
|
Harvesting
|
84463
|
|
Threshing
|
405467
|
|
Cane
Crushing
|
55788
|
|
Transport
|
482901
|
|
Cooking
|
818935
|
|
Lighting
|
834428
|
|
Source:
NSSO (2005), Some Aspects of Farming, 59th Round
(
jan-Dec 2003), Report No.496
|
At
all-India level, 83.4 million households
reported energy use for lighting purposes, followed by 81.9 million
households using energy for cooking. Important agricultural activities for
which some form of energy has been used are ploughing (reported by 78.2
million households), harvesting (8.4 million households) and threshing (4.1
million households).
About
39.1 million households have reported using energy for irrigation where as
48.3 million households use energy for transport.
4.
Number of Farmer Households Using Energy For Ploughing
At
all-
India
level, 78.2 million farmer households have reported using different sources
of energy for ploughing (Table 3). Among these sources, 52 per cent of
farmer households have reported using animal power
and about 48 per cent using diesel tractors for ploughing.
Electricity was used by about 0.4 per cent of farmer households for this
activity. Hardly 0.1 per cent farmer households used other sources
consisting of solar energy, LPG, gobar gas, dung cake and firewood.
The
usage of different sources of energy has also been looked by category of
households classified by size of land possessed at all-
India
level Majority of farmers in all classes except medium and large farmers
(more than 50 per cent) had adopted animal power as the energy source.
However, among larger farmer households possessing
|
Table
3: Number of Farmer Households in Different Size Classes of Land
Possessed by Primary Source of Energy used for Ploughing
|
|
|
|
Size
Class of Land Possessed
(Hectares)
|
No.of
hhs reporting energy use ( ' 00)
|
Primary
Source of Energy
Animal
Power
Diese/Petrol/Kerosene
Electricity
|
|
|
Marginal
farmers
|
<
1.00
|
490402
|
252054
|
(51.4)
|
235719
|
(48.1)
|
2406
|
(0.5)
|
|
|
|
<
0.01
|
1544
|
699
|
(45.3)
|
838
|
(54.3)
|
6
|
(0.4)
|
|
|
|
0.01-0.40
|
222284
|
103140
|
(46.4)
|
117588
|
(52.9)
|
1334
|
(0.6)
|
|
|
|
0.41-1.00
|
266574
|
148215
|
(55.6)
|
117293
|
(44.0)
|
1066
|
(0.4)
|
|
Small
farmers
|
1.01-2.00
|
153193
|
86401
|
(56.4)
|
66179
|
(43.2)
|
613
|
(0.4)
|
|
|
Semi-medium
|
2.01-4.00
|
89760
|
47573
|
(53.0)
|
41828
|
(46.6)
|
359
|
(0.4)
|
|
|
Medium
|
4.01-10.00
|
41381
|
18332
|
(44.3)
|
22884
|
(55.3)
|
166
|
(0.4)
|
|
|
Large
|
>
10.00 +
|
7301
|
2073
|
(28.4)
|
5118
|
(70.1)
|
110
|
(1.5)
|
|
|
All
Sizes
|
|
782038
|
406338
|
(52.0)
|
371794
|
(47.5)
|
3440
|
(0.4)
|
|
|
Note:
Figures in brackets are percentages to total reported farmer
households
|
|
|
Source:
NSSO(2005), Some Aspects of Farming, Report No. 496
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
above
10 hectares of land, there was a marked increase in the use of diesel power
(Table 3). Seventy per cent of large farmer households reported using diesel
tractors for ploughing. Further, 1.5 per cent of farmer household in this
class reported the use of electricity for ploughing.
|
Table
4: Number of Farmer Households Reporting Source of Energy for Ploughing
|
|
|
No.
of hhs (00)
|
Primary
Source of Energy
|
|
|
|
Percentage
Distribution of hhs Using Energy By Sources ( ' 00)
|
|
|
|
Animal
Power
|
Diesel
etc
|
Electricity
|
Others
|
|
Northern
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Haryana
|
12940
|
11.4
|
88.6
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Himachal
Pradesh
|
8342
|
77.0
|
22.0
|
1.0
|
0.0
|
|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
8512
|
62.4
|
36.9
|
0.7
|
0.0
|
|
Punjab
|
9822
|
2.5
|
96.0
|
1.5
|
0.0
|
|
Rajasthan
|
49349
|
29.0
|
70.4
|
0.6
|
0.0
|
|
North-Eastern
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Arunachal
Pradesh
|
426
|
97.7
|
1.7
|
0.4
|
0.2
|
|
Assam
|
23307
|
97.4
|
2.6
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Manipur
|
1360
|
36.5
|
62.7
|
0.2
|
0.6
|
|
Meghalaya
|
734
|
76.1
|
23.9
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Mizoram
|
14
|
98.6
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
1.4
|
|
Nagaland
|
81
|
100.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Tripura
|
2032
|
56.5
|
43.3
|
0.2
|
0.0
|
|
Eastern
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bihar
|
65609
|
35.4
|
64.2
|
0.2
|
0.2
|
|
Jharkhand
|
27060
|
98.0
|
1.9
|
0.0
|
0.1
|
|
Orissa
|
41238
|
87.9
|
12.1
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Sikkim
|
426
|
100.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
West Bengal
|
61002
|
46.8
|
52.6
|
0.5
|
0.1
|
|
Central
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chattisgarh
|
27168
|
90.4
|
9.5
|
0.1
|
0.0
|
|
Madhya
Pradesh
|
60720
|
65.4
|
34.1
|
0.5
|
0.0
|
|
Uttranchal
|
8579
|
79.1
|
20.9
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Uttar
Pradesh
|
156692
|
18.3
|
81.2
|
0.5
|
0.0
|
|
Western
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gujarat
|
32392
|
46.7
|
52.3
|
0.9
|
0.1
|
|
Maharashtra
|
61405
|
78.5
|
21.0
|
0.3
|
0.2
|
|
Southern
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andhra
Pradesh
|
54819
|
61.4
|
38.3
|
0.3
|
0.0
|
|
Karnataka
|
37077
|
85.5
|
13.9
|
0.4
|
0.2
|
|
Kerala
|
2586
|
27.0
|
71.6
|
1.4
|
0.0
|
|
Tamil
Nadu
|
27245
|
30.4
|
67.9
|
1.7
|
0.0
|
|
Uts
|
478
|
66.5
|
33.4
|
0.0
|
0.1
|
|
All-India
|
782038
|
52.0
|
47.5
|
0.4
|
0.1
|
|
Source:
NSSO(2005), Some Aspects of Farming, 59th Round, Report No
496
|
Inter
state variations in the proportion of farmer households reporting the use of
animal power and diesel for ploughing is shown in Table 4. Majority of
states exhibited a remarkable variations in the use of different
source of energy, with not only the economically backward belt consisting of
Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and north-eastern states but also by the more
developed states like Karnataka and Maharashtra which depended heavily on
animal power. More than 80 per cent of farmer households in Haryana,
Punjab
, Uttar Pradesh,and Kerala
depend upon diesel power for ploughing. Around 1.5 per cent of farmer
households in
Punjab
, Kerala and Tamil Nadu reported use of electricity to some extent for
ploughing. Farmer households in all the states for ploughing rarely used
other sources of energy viz., solar energy, LPG, gobar gas, dung cake and
firewood, except some farmer households in Manipur reported use of solar
energy and firewood for ploughing..
5.
Number of Farmer Households Using Energy For Irrigation
At
all-
India
level 39.1 million farmer households have reported energy use from various
sources for irrigation. About 65.5 per cent of farmer households reported
the use diesel power for irrigation of their land during the last 365 days
preceding the date of the survey. Another 33.5 per cent used electric pumps
for irrigation. Animal power has been used
by a mere 1.0 farmer households for irrigation.
Considering
reporting farmers by the size of land possessed by them, small proportion of
marginal and small farmer households has been using animal power for
irrigation (Table 5). Use of diesel power seems to have increased with the
increase in the size of land holding class of farmer households. Incidence
of use of electric pumps has also increased steadily with size class of land
holding from about 10 per cent in the lowest size class to 73 per cent in
the largest size class.
|
Table
5 : Number of Farmer Households in Different Size Classes of Land
Possessed by Primary Source of Energy used for Irrigation
|
|
|
Size
Class of Land Possessed
(
hectares)
|
No.of
hhs reporting energy use ( ' 00)
|
Primary
Source of Energy
|
|
|
|
|
Animal
Power
|
Diesel/Kerosene
|
Electricity
|
|
Marginal
farmers
|
<
1.00
|
245531
|
2368
|
(1.0)
|
180725
|
(73.6)
|
62437
|
(25.4)
|
|
|
<
0.01
|
1001
|
48
|
(4.8)
|
854
|
(85.3)
|
98
|
(9.8)
|
|
|
0.01-0.40
|
121169
|
1333
|
(1.1)
|
94875
|
(78.3)
|
24961
|
(20.6)
|
|
|
0.41-1.00
|
123361
|
987
|
(0.8)
|
84996
|
(68.9)
|
37378
|
(30.3)
|
|
Small
farmers
|
1.01-2.00
|
74196
|
965
|
(1.3)
|
44295
|
(59.7)
|
28929
|
(39.0)
|
|
Semi-medium
|
2.01-4.00
|
45648
|
365
|
(0.8)
|
21911
|
(48.0)
|
23417
|
(51.3)
|
|
Medium
|
4.01-10.00
|
21903
|
131
|
(0.6)
|
8279
|
(37.8)
|
13492
|
(61.6)
|
|
Large
|
>
10.00 +
|
3769
|
15
|
(0.4)
|
1003
|
(26.6)
|
2751
|
(73.0)
|
|
All
Sizes
|
|
391047
|
3770
|
(1.0)
|
256145
|
(65.5)
|
2611
|
(33.5)
|
|
Note:
Figures in brackets are percentages to total reported farmer
households
|
|
Source:
NSSO (2005), Some Aspects of Farming, Report No. 496
|
Inter-state
variations in the proportion of households using diesel, electricity, animal
power and other sources for irrigation were shown in Table 6. Use of diesel
pump for irrigation has been reported by more than 80 per cent of the farmer
households
in
Haryana
,
Assam
, Manipur, Meghlaya,
Bihar
, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. More than 70 per cent farmer households in
southern states,
Himachal Pradesh
,
Jammu and Kashmir
,
Punjab
, and Uttranchal reported the use of electric pump for irrigation. Animal
power as a source of energy for irrigation was mainly reported by
Arunachal Pradesh
,
Assam
, Haryana, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. Farmer
households in Arunachal Pradesh also reported use of firewood (under others)
as a source of energy for irrigation.
|
Table
6: Number of Farmer Households Reporting Source of Energy for
Irrigation
|
|
|
No.
of hhs reporting use of Energy
(
' 00)
|
Primary
Source of Energy
|
|
|
|
Percentage
Distribution of hhs Using Energy By Sources (' 00)
|
|
|
|
Animal
Power
|
Diesel
etc
|
Electricity
|
Others
|
|
Northern
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Haryana
|
10045
|
11.4
|
88.6
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Himachal
Pradesh
|
782
|
2.4
|
15.5
|
82.1
|
0.0
|
|
Jammu and Kashmir
|
1134
|
3.6
|
21.5
|
74.9
|
0.0
|
|
Punjab
|
8931
|
0.0
|
29.0
|
71.0
|
0.0
|
|
Rajasthan
|
21216
|
4.9
|
61.1
|
33.9
|
0.1
|
|
North-Eastern
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Arunachal
Pradesh
|
25
|
74.9
|
0.8
|
1.6
|
22.7
|
|
Assam
|
2004
|
9.1
|
86.5
|
4.4
|
0.0
|
|
Manipur
|
75
|
0.0
|
100.0
|
0.0
|
0.6
|
|
Meghalaya
|
32
|
0.0
|
100.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Mizoram
|
0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Nagaland
|
0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
Tripura
|
778
|
1.0
|
64.8
|
31.8
|
2.5
|
|
Eastern
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bihar
|
54622
|
0.5
|
97.4
|
2.1
|
0.5
|
|
Jharkhand
|
2975
|
15.5
|
81.1
|
2.1
|
1.3
|
|
Orissa
|
2932
|
1.7
|
60.6
|
37.8
|
0.0
|
|
Sikkim
|
3
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
|
West Bengal
|
35987
|
0.4
|
86.8
|
12.8
|
0.0
|
|
Central
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chattisgarh
|
2101
|
9.8
|
27.6
|
62.6
|
0.0
|
|
Madhya
Pradesh
|
24043
|
0.6
|
34.1
|
65.3
|
0.0
|
|
Uttranchal
|
1897
|
0.0
|
15.3
|
84.7
|
0.0
|
|
Uttar
Pradesh
|
137882
|
0.0
|
84.2
|
15.8
|
0.0
|
|
Western
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gujarat
|
15699
|
1.9
|
34.8
|
63.3
|
0.1
|
|
Maharashtra
|
20016
|
1.0
|
12.1
|
86.9
|
0.0
|
|
Southern
Region
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andhra
Pradesh
|
19457
|
1.4
|
20.2
|
78.4
|
0.0
|
|
Karnataka
|
8594
|
3.7
|
7.4
|
88.9
|
0.2
|
|
Kerala
|
2830
|
0.4
|
15.0
|
84.6
|
0.0
|
|
Tamil
Nadu
|
16654
|
0.3
|
27.3
|
72.4
|
0.0
|
|
Uts
|
136
|
0.0
|
10.8
|
89.2
|
0.0
|
|
All-India
|
391047
|
1.0
|
65.5
|
33.5
|
0.0
|
|
Source:
NSSO(2005), Some Aspects of Farming, 59th Round, Report No
496
|
6.
Number of Farmer Households Using Energy For Harvesting
At
all-India level, 8.4 million households have
reported the usage of energy from different sources for harvesting.
Almost
59 per cent of farmer households have reported the use of diesel powered
energy for harvesting crops during the 365 days of the reference year while
another 38 per cent used animal power. However, only 3 per cent of farmer
households reported the use of electricity for harvesting, at all-
India
level.
The
incidence of use of diesel power have increased steadily with increase in
size class of land possessed by farmer household from 47 per cent in the
lowest size class to 80 per cent in the largest class. No such pattern was,
however, seen in the case of usage of electrical energy for harvesting,
where about 3 per cent of households in each of the size classes have
reported to be using
energy for harvesting.
|
Table
7: Number of Farmer Households in Different Size Classes of Land
Possessed by Primary Source of Energy used for Harvesting
|
|
|
Size
Class of Land Possessed
(
hectatres)
|
No.of
hhs reporting energy use ( ' 00)
|
Primary
Source of Energy
|
|
|
|
|
Animal
Power
|
Diese/Petrol/Kerosene
|
Electricity
|
|
Marginal
farmers
|
<
1.00
|
43993
|
18081
|
(41.1)
|
24311
|
(55.3)
|
1181
|
(2.7)
|
|
|
<
0.01
|
283
|
135
|
(47.6)
|
|