Energy efficiency and congestion considering data envelopment analysis and bounded adjusted measure: A case of tomato production

Abstract

Auditing energy usage of farming operations is a key step towards agricultural sustainability. The current systems of tomato production use a considerable quantity of energy. As a result, improving energy efficiency is a crucial stage in decreasing energy consumption in tomato production. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is an established methodology to assess energy efficiency in crop production. In this study, the bounded adjusted measure (BAM) is applied for improving the efficiency of tomato production as well as decreasing the carbon footprint. In this regard, the overall, environmental, production, and pure emission efficiency of tomato production in 24 provinces of Iran are investigated. The nine overall efficient tomato producing provinces recognized that showed they had no input excesses and/or output shortfalls. Also, similar to the overall efficiency, nine out of the 24 DMUs were recognized as environmental, production, and pure emission efficient. Finally, in order to measure the probable amounts of excessive investments in inputs, with the aim of obtaining more outputs, a new approach of determining congestion is proposed based on BAM model.