Energy and carbon footprints of wheat establishment following different rice residue management strategies vis-à-vis conventional tillage coupled with rice residue burning in north-western India

Abstract Energy and carbon (C) footprints have close nexus in agriculture. Agri-inputs are energy intensive and lead to significant C equivalent (CE) emissions. We studied energy and C footprints during wheat establishment following different rice residue management (RRM) strategies: residue retention with Happy Seeder (HS); removal after bailing + zero till drill (ZT); incorporation with rotavator tillage + drill (RT) and mould board plough tillage + drill (MBP) vis-a-vis burning + conventional tillage + drill (CT)to identify options for balancing energy, C footprints and C sequestration. Total energy input (EI) with residue retention was significantly (p