wefnexus

One package. Five dimensions. Ten interlinkages. A comprehensive R package for Water-Energy-Food-Nutrient-Carbon (WEFNC) nexus analysis in agricultural production systems.

Why wefnexus?

Modern agriculture doesn’t work in silos. When we save water, it affects energy use. When we add fertilizers, it impacts carbon emissions. When we change tillage, it affects food production, soil health, and everything in between.

wefnexus connects all 5 dimensions in one package — giving researchers, policymakers, and agronomists the tools to see the full picture and make decisions that are truly sustainable.

Installation

Install the stable version from CRAN:

install.packages("wefnexus")

Or install the development version from GitHub:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("lalitrolaniya/wefnexus")

Modules

Module Functions Key Metrics
💧 Water 11 WUE, WP, WF (green/blue/grey), CWSI, CWP, RUE, IWP, WSI
⚡ Energy 14 EUE, EROI (standard + extended), EP, EI, NER, REF, energy budget
🌾 Food 12 FPI, HI, LER, SPI, SYI, nutritional yield, BCR
🧪 Nutrient 11 AE, PE, RE, PFP, IUE, NHI, N surplus, SNI
🌿 Carbon 10 CF, GHG, SOC, GWP (IPCC AR6), CEI, NECB
🔗 Nexus 10 Composite index, trade-off matrix, sensitivity, radar, heatmap

Quick Start 

library(wefnexus)
data(arid_pulse_nexus)
d <- arid_pulse_nexus

# Water Use Efficiency
wue <- water_use_efficiency(d$grain_yield, d$total_water)

# Energy Return on Investment
e_out <- d$energy_output_grain + d$energy_output_straw
eroi(energy_out = e_out, energy_in = d$energy_input)

# Carbon Footprint (IPCC AR6)
carbon_footprint(diesel_use = d$diesel_use[1],
                 electricity_use = d$electricity_kwh[1],
                 n_fertilizer = d$n_applied[1],
                 yield = d$grain_yield[1])

# Full Nexus Summary
nexus_summary(
  yield = d$grain_yield,
  water_consumed = d$total_water,
  energy_input = d$energy_input,
  energy_output = e_out,
  n_applied = d$n_applied,
  n_uptake = d$n_uptake,
  carbon_emission = d$ghg_emission,
  treatment_names = d$treatment
)

Key Features

  • 52 functions across 6 integrated modules
  • IPCC AR6 GWP defaults: CH₄ = 27, N₂O = 273 (100-yr horizon)
  • S3 classes with print(), summary(), and plot() methods
  • Publication-ready radar plots, heatmaps, and sensitivity charts
  • Vectorized — process multiple treatments in one call
  • Nutritional yield analysis (protein, Fe, Zn, persons fed)
  • Nexus sensitivity analysis for weight perturbation assessment
  • Conservation agriculture focus (CT/ZT/PB comparisons)
  • Arid and semi-arid environment emphasis
  • 63 automated tests — zero errors, zero warnings
  • Free and open-source under GPL-3

Documentation 

# Complete vignette with all 6 modules
browseVignettes("wefnexus")

# View the built-in sample dataset
?arid_pulse_nexus

# Help for any function
?carbon_footprint
?nexus_summary
?water_use_efficiency

📖 Full documentation website: https://lalitrolaniya.github.io/wefnexus/

Data Format

You can use either treatment means or replication-level data (recommended).

Replication-level data (each row = one plot, i.e., Treatment × Replication) preserves variability and allows you to compute mean ± SE, generate error bars, and make statistical comparisons between treatments. All functions are vectorized — they compute results for every row at once.

# Example: summarize by treatment after computation
df$wue <- water_use_efficiency(df$yield, df$water)
aggregate(wue ~ Treatment, data = df, FUN = mean)

Citation

If you use wefnexus in your research, please cite:

citation("wefnexus")
Rolaniya, L.K., Poonia, H., Jat, R.L., Punia, M. & Choudhary, R.R. (2026).
wefnexus: Water-Energy-Food-Nutrient-Carbon Nexus Analysis for Agronomic
Systems. R package version 1.0.0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=wefnexus
DOI: 10.32614/CRAN.package.wefnexus

Authors

Author Affiliation
Lalit Kumar Rolaniya (maintainer) Scientist (Agronomy), ICAR-IIPR RC Bikaner
Hemant Poonia Assistant Professor, Dept of Mathematics & Statistics, CCS HAU Hisar
Ram Lal Jat Scientist, ICAR-IIPR RC Bikaner
Monika Punia Scientist, ICAR-IIPR RC Bikaner
Raja Ram Choudhary Scientist, ICAR-IIGR RRS Bikaner
Resource URL
📦 CRAN https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=wefnexus
📖 Documentation https://lalitrolaniya.github.io/wefnexus/
💻 Source Code https://github.com/lalitrolaniya/wefnexus
🔗 DOI 10.32614/CRAN.package.wefnexus

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Found a bug? Have a feature request? Open an issue

Support

If you find this package useful, please ⭐ star this repository — it helps others discover it!

License

GPL (>= 3)