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The data on energy use patterns and resources present in village ecosystems of the arid region are seldom available. India possesses about 31.71 Mha of hot arid areas of which 61.8% is in Rajasthan State, commonly known as the "Thar Desert", and is characterised by harsh climatic conditions with active dunal activities. Precipitations are far lower (100-420 mm/yr) than evapotranspiration potentials (1500-2000 mm/yr). Soils are sandy, having an undulating topography with poor organic carbon content (0.04-0.3%) against the average value, (0.8%), on an all India basis. Ground water is limited and often brackish. To farther add to this grim situation, there is a continuous occurrence of severe drought in the region since the last three years (1997-1998 to 1999-2000). As a result, about 50-60% of the kharif crops (rainfed crops) failed and numbers of animals perished, resulting in shattering of the economy of the region. The data on energy input for cultivating different crops for the 1998-1999 (drought year) were collected. analysed and presented for the representative village "Choukha" district, Jodhpur. Owing to the drought. the farmers of the village have grown kharif crops (rainfed crops) by providing life saving irrigation. Although 50-60% of the crops failed, due to the irrigation, the yield levels were the same or even more during the period compared to the normal rainfall year yield.

Operationwise, the total energy use values (weighted mean) for cultivating the pearl millet crop were found to be 3807.4 MJ/ha compared to 2697.9 for green gram and 8726.3 for wheat. The average value of the energy input-output ratio was found to be 4.8, 6.8 and 3.2, respectively, for pearl millet, green gram and wheat, suggesting that cultivation of green gram is most remunerative, to the Farmers compared to the pearl millet and wheat crops. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.