Ecological Foot Prints of Agriculture: a case of kuntalagudem, Telangana

1. KUNTALA GUDEM
Ecological Footprints of Modern Farming
Based on a study done by students of Zilla
Parishad High School , Kuntalagudem
Mandal - Choutuppal
District – Nalgonda
Telangana

2. Kuntala Gudem village demographics
A glimpse
• Families living – 106
• Families participated in Survey – 102
• Cultivable Land – 536.25 acres
• Rain Fed Holding – 137.5 acres
• Land Fed by Borewell water – 398.75 acres
• No. of Borewells – 83
• Dried up Borewells – 3
• Electricity Transformers – 17
• Crops under Cultivation in acreage
– Cotton - 372
– Paddy – 127.75
– Fodder – 19

3. Land Holding & the no. of farmers
• I – 2.5 acres 33 no’s
• 2.5 – 5 acres 34 no’s
• 5 – 10 acres 23 no’s
• 10 – 20 acres 11 no’s

4. Rainfall in 2013
• Total Rainfall – 969 mm
• Paddy variety BPT 5204 was caught in heavy rains during
harvest in October and farmers have lost.
paddy
cotton

5. Manures / Chemicals used
• Urea – 842.5 Bags
• DAP – 792 Bags
• Compost – 95.5 Tractor loads
• Poultry Manure – 24 Tractor loads
• Bio Fertilizer – 10 Kg
• Weedicides – 113 Kg
• Pesticides – 557 Ltrs

6. Ecological Footprints: Water consumption by Paddy
• Paddy fields spread –
127.75 acres
• Water consumption per
acre – 60 Lac Ltrs
• Total water consumed for
Paddy cultivation –
76,65,00,000 Ltrs
• Overall Paddy Cultivated –
268.27 tonnes
• Water needed to grow one
Kg of Paddy – 2858 Ltrs
• Water needed to cook one
Kg of Rice – 4,759 Ltrs

7. Ecological Footprints: Water consumption by cotton
• Cotton fields spread – 372 acres
• Water utilized per acre – 6 Lakh Ltrs
• Total water utilized – 22, 32, 00, 000 Ltrs
• Total Cotton Harvested – 204.6 Tonnes
• Water consumed to grow a Kg. of
Cotton – 1090 Ltrs
• Kg of cotton lint – 3629.7 Ltrs

8. Ecological Footprints: Water consumption in agriculture
• 100 mm rain on one acre= 1.00 lakh ltrs of water
• Rainfall in the village – 969 mm
• Water received due to rainfall – 51,96,26,250 Ltrs
• Paddy – 76, 65, 00, 000 Ltrs
• Cotton – 22, 32, 00, 000 Ltrs
• Total – 98, 97, 00, 000 Ltrs

9. Ecological Footprints: Water consumption
• Population – 530
– Water consumed per day – 300 Ltrs
– Water consumed for household – 5,80,35,000 Ltrs
• Total Livestock – 265
– Water consumed for livestock – 150 Ltrs per day
– Yearly consumption of water for livestock – 1,45,08,750 Ltrs
• Yearly consumption by the entire Village – 1,06,22,43,750 Lts
– Difference on the sources of water accessed at the village & water
consumed (1,06,22,43,750 – 51,96,26,250)
– Difference – 54,26,17,500
Going by the statistics above, if there are about 50% of village area has groundwater
aquifer, there is a depletion of water resources by 20 cm every year

10. Ecological Footprints: Electricity to Borewells
• Assuming one borewell working six hours per day
for 200 days in an year total units consumed
comes to 4474
• Carbon dioxide emitted in generation of one unit
of electricity – 3.2 Metric Tonnes
• Borewells in working condition at the village – 80
• Amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions are
11,45,344 Tonnes

11. Ecological Footprints – Methane
Emissions from Paddy cultivation
• Methane released by ponding water per day –
460 Kg
• Total in a crop period of 150 days – 69 Tonnes
• In entire village – 127.75 acres
• One tonne of Methane equals 21 tonnes of CO2
• CO2 emission on Total Methane released =8,814.5
tonnes which is equal to 1.85 Lakh tonnes of
carbon dioxide

12. Ecological Footprints: Chemical Fertilizers
• Carbon Emissions
– In producing one bag of Urea - 92.46 Kg
– In transporting one bag of Urea – 62.1 Kg
– N20 released by a bag of Urea – 28.75 Kg
– One Kg of N2O equals 310 Kg of CO2
– Urea consumed by village in total – 842.5 Kg
– Amount of CO2emitted by the village – 7638.98
tonnes

13. Ecological Footprints: Farm Machinery
• Diesel consumed to plough per acre – 8 Ltrs
• Diesel consumed by a harvester per acre – 8 Ltrs
• Diesel consumed to plough the entire paddy
fields – 536.25 X 2 X 8 = 8580 Ltrs
• Diesel consumed by the village to harvest paddy
127.75 X 8 = 1022 Ltrs
• Overall diesel consumption on account of
machinery = 9620 Ltrs
• Amount of CO2 emitted by a liter of Diesel – 2.26
X 10 Metric Tonnes totaling 225 Metric tonnes

14. Environment footprint of entire village
CO2 emission in Metric Tonnes
• Electricity – 11,45,344 Tonnes
• For Paddy cultivation due Methane
release – 1,85,109.75
• For overall urea consumption – 7638.98
• For machinery usage – 22.6
• Over CO2emission – 3,77,881.08

15. Comparing the CO2 emissions by this village

16. Ecological footprints
Conclusions & Alternatives
• Can avoid drought situation for two crop seasons,
if the water is stored at the farm level.
• If the water is conserved at the village level, it
could suffice consumption for entire home needs.
• Shifting paddy cultivation into Systematic Rice
Intensification (SRI) method, the consumption
levels can be halved including the release of
Methane gases by half
• Shifting to organic farming can reduce the
emissions by more than 50%