Energy and economic analysis of traditional versus introduced crops cultivation in the mountains of the Indian Himalayas: A case study

This study analyzed the energy and economics associated with cultivation of traditional and introduced crops in the mountains of the Central Himalaya, India. The production cost in terms of energy for introduced crops such as tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) and bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) cultivation was 90,358–320,516MJha 1 as compared to between 19,814 and 42,380MJha 1 for traditional crops within Himalayan agroecosystems. For the introduced crops, high energy and monetary input was associated with human labor, forest resources, chemical fertilizer and pesticides. However, energy threshold/projection for farmyard manure in traditional crop cultivation was 80–90% of the total energy cost, thus traditional crop cultivation was more efficient in energy and economics. During the study, the farm productivity of introduced crops cultivation declined with increasing years of cultivation. Consequently, the energy output from the system has been declining at the rate of y20,598 to y20,748MJha 1 yr 1 for tomato and y12,072 to y15,056MJha 1 yr 1 for bell pepper under irrigated and rain-fed land use in the mountains, respectively. The comparative analysis on this paradigm shift indicates that more research is needed to support sustainable crop cultivation in the fragile Himalayan environment.