Sustainable food production is a key concern across countries in South Asia. Most assessments of sustainable agriculture in this region focus on the availability and affordability of resource inputs. However, studies accounting for environmental footprint of agricultural activities in South Asian countries are limited in the existing literature. This paper analyzed the environmental impact of energy utilization in agriculture in India and Pakistan. More specifically, the study analyzes the trends of fuel and electricity consumption for crop production in these countries during a ten-year period between the years 2002 and 2011. Life cycle impact assessment categories including global warming potential, human toxicity, acidification and eutrophication were used to holistically analyze the end-user impact of energy consumption. Results indicated an increase in these impacts for both countries during the study period. On a per hectare basis, the assessed impacts were relatively greater in India than in Pakistan during the study period. The main reason behind larger impacts in India was its significantly greater use of coal for electricity generation. Overall, this study showed that further electrification of agriculture will not necessarily lead to cleaner environment in these countries. Due to high population growth rates, energy consumption for agriculture is expected to grow in these countries in the future. Unless cleaner sources of electricity are used, further energy intensification in agriculture will be detrimental to ecosystem and human health, which in turn will be counterproductive for sustainable agriculture.

可持续的粮食生产是南亚各国的主要关切。该区域对可持续农业的大多数评估都侧重于资源投入的可得性和可承受性。然而，在现有文献中，关于南亚国家农业活动的环境足迹的研究有限。本文分析了印度和巴基斯坦农业能源利用对环境的影响。更具体地说，该研究分析了这些国家在2002年至2011年之间的十年中用于作物生产的燃料和电力消耗的趋势。生命周期影响评估类别包括全球变暖潜能，人类毒性，酸化和富营养化被用来全面分析最终用户对能源消耗的影响。结果表明，在研究期间，这两个国家的影响都在增加。在研究期间，按公顷计算，印度的评估影响相对大于巴基斯坦。在印度产生更大影响的主要原因是其大量使用煤炭发电。总的来说，这项研究表明，进一步的电气化农业的使用不一定会在这些国家带来更清洁的环境。由于人口增长率高，预计这些国家的农业能源消耗将在未​​来增长。除非使用更清洁的电源，否则农业中进一步的能源集约化将不利于生态系统和人类健康，而这反过来将对可持续农业起反作用。