ORIGINAL ARTICLE Mulching and nitrogen management in peanut cultivation: an evaluation of productivity, energy trade-off, carbon footprint and profitability Mousumi Mondal 1 • Sourav Garai 1 • Hirak Banerjee 1 • Sukamal Sarkar 1 • Rajib Kundu 2 1 Department of Agronomy, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741 252, India 2 AICRP on Groundnut, Directorate of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal 741235, India Received: 12 May 2020 / Revised: 30 August 2020 / Accepted: 3 September 2020 Ó The Joint Center on Global Change and Earth System Science of the University of Maryland and Beijing Normal University 2020 Abstract Field study was conducted during winter seasons (November–March) of 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 at the Research Farm of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal, India, with an aim to investigate the crop productivity, energy and C budget, carbon footprint and economic sustainability of peanut cultivation fertilized with varied levels of nitrogen under polythene mulching. The experiment laid out in split-plot design comprised of two mulching practices as the main-plot treatments and seven doses of N with or without supplementation of Rhizobium bio-fertilizer as the sub-plot treatments. Fertil- ization with 100% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN) ? Rhizobium under polythene mulching brought about significant enhancement in pod yield over other nutrient management practices. The effects on yield attributing characters were similar to that of pod yield. Energy indices namely net energy gain, energy produc- tivity, energy intensiveness and energy profitability were the highest with 100% RDN ? Rhizobium, irrespective of mulching situations. However, the maximum values of specific energy and nutrient energy ratio were recorded when the crop received 50% RDN with and without Rhi- zobium, respectively, under mulching and non-mulching situations. Human energy profitability was always greater under mulching situations over non-mulching. Total esti- mated carbon footprints improved with increase in N level from 0 to 100% RDN with Rhizobium under polythene mulching over non-mulching situations. Highest value of C sustainability index was also observed with polythene covering particularly with the application of 100% RDN ? Rhizobium. This treatment combination also proved its superiority with respect to economic benefits in peanut cultivation. Keywords Peanut Á Energy budget Á Carbon footprint Á Economics 1 Introduction Rapid growing population with sustainable food and diet- ary requirements is a serious concern worldwide (Patel et al. 2020). It is estimated that the world population would reach 9.5 billion by 2050 (Godfray et al. 2010). To feed the rising population and keep the pace of productivity, agri- cultural production has to be increased substantially with associated high consumption of natural resources (FAO 2011). Energy, external inputs, mechanization and the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers (Shahmohammadi et al. 2018) are responsible for about 24% of global greenhouse gases (IPCC 2014). The emission of green- house gases (GHGs) due to anthropogenic activities in both the agricultural and natural ecosystems is degrading the environmental quality and jeopardizes the life forms in this planet (Xue et al. 2016). Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), world’s fourth most important source of edible oil (44–56%), third-most invaluable source of high-quality vegetable protein (22–30%), carbohydrates (20%), essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals for human nutrition (Ojiewo et al. 2020), is cultivated in 120 countries from an area of 20.4 m-ha globally (Jain et al. 2017). The present climatic Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s40974-020-00189-9) contains sup- plementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Hirak Banerjee hirak.bckv@gmail.com 123 Energ. Ecol. Environ. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40974-020-00189-9