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Analyzing the Food-Energy Nexus of Irrigated Crops in Pakistan: Implications for Food Security and Agricultural Sustainability

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Abstract

Pakistan is currently facing significant challenges in meeting the food and energy needs of the country. Sustainable agricultural production can help in meeting these challenges. Food and energy are closely interlinked in agricultural production systems, as agriculture is consumer as well as producer of energy. To investigate the food-energy nexus, this study analyzes the yield performances and energy efficiencies of wheat, rice and cotton cropping systems of Punjab and Sindh. The yield analysis was conducted by applying a stochastic model and energy analysis using indicator based approach. Findings of the study indicate hotspots that have lower crops yields, declining yields, larger yield gaps indicating an unsustainable use of the input resources and gives insights on inter and intra provisional comparison of the yield performance and energy efficiency. Almost 84–93% of energy used for crop production came from non-renewable sources. Cotton crop in Punjab and rice crop in Sindh have not performed well in past four decades. Use of non-renewable energy sources, inorganic fertilizers, conventional management practices, burning of crops residue are prevailing in the study area. By assessing the analysis outcomes, this study draws the implications for food security and agricultural sustainability and suggests measures to achieve them in the study area.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during this research is available from corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

AR:
Autoregressive
ARIMA:
Autoregressive integrated moving average
C-W:
Cotton–wheat
Eeq:
Energy equivalent
FAO:
Food and agriculture organization
FYM:
Farmyard Manure
Ha:
Hectare
hr/ha:
Hour per hectare
Kg/ha-yr:
Kilograms per hectare per year
L:
Litter
MJ:
Mega joule
R-W:
Rice–wheat
TOE:
Total output energy
TIE:
Total input energy
t/ha:
Tones per hectare
WGR:
Waste to gain ratio
WEF:
Water energy food

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Acknowledgements

We (the authors) would like to acknowledge the financial support (funding) provided by The Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) in Islamabad, Pakistan, in collaboration with the Natural National Science Foundation of China (NSFC), which enabled us to carry out this research. We would also like to express our gratitude to US-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water (USPCAS-W) in Mehran University of Engineering and Technology for providing logistical support during the research process.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. US-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan

    Sadia Allah Ditta, Rasool Bux Mahar, Kamran Ansari, Tayyaba Suhail & Waqas Ahmed

  2. Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand

    Asmat Ullah

  3. Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University of Technology and Skills Development, Khairpur Mirs, Sindh, Pakistan

    Rasool Bux Mahar

Contributions

AU, SAD, RBM, KA, TS and WA contributed in the study conception and design. SAD collected and prepared the data, performed the analysis and wrote the first draft. AU contributed in conceptualization, helped in analysis and writing the final draft. All co-authors contributed and approved the final draft for the submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Asmat Ullah.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare there are no financial or non-financial conflict of interest that could have seemed directly or indirectly affect this study.

Ethical Approval

This is an observational study. The Research Ethic Committee of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology has confirmed that non ethical approval is required.

Consent to Participate

The study was conducted using publicly available secondary data related to agriculture. Therefore, we confirm that obtaining consent to participate in this study was not required.

Consent to publish

The study was conducted using publicly available secondary data related to agriculture. Therefore, we confirm that obtaining consent to publish the data was not required.

Additional information

Handling Editor: Anjani Kumar.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (PDF 808 KB)

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Cite this article

Ditta, S.A., Ullah, A., Mahar, R.B. et al. Analyzing the Food-Energy Nexus of Irrigated Crops in Pakistan: Implications for Food Security and Agricultural Sustainability. Agric Res (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40003-025-00878-z

  • Received
  • Accepted
  • Published
  • DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s40003-025-00878-z

Keywords

  • Cotton–wheat
  • Energy efficiency
  • Food security
  • Rice–wheat
  • Sustainability implications
  • Yield

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