Sampling design and estimation procedure for energy audit and carbon footprints for onion crop in India

Abstract Agriculture significantly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, necessitating swift policy action to mitigate its environmental impact, aligning with UN sustainable development Goals (SDGs). Assessing energy usage and targeting energy-intensive operations are key to effective energy management that enables farmers to implement strategies, reducing costs and carbon footprint. Implementing energy audits in agriculture requires a proper sampling methodology to identify energy-intensive operations and explore renewable energy sources. Therefore, the study presents a detailed sampling design and methodology for estimating energy usage in agricultural crops. It outlines sample size determination, allocation across strata, selection and parameter estimation procedures. Non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) identified 7% of farm households as efficiently using energy, with an average technical efficiency of 0.77 for inefficient ones, suggesting a potential 23% resource saving without yield reduction. Additionally, CO2 emissions per crop production process highlight the urgency of policy formulation to promote renewable energy sources.