Improving Energy Efficiency Using Data Envelopment Analysis: A Case of Walnut Production

Abstract

Walnut is one of the most nutritive crops and modern production methods require large quantities of energy. Efficient use of these energies is a necessary step toward agricultural sustainability. This study therefore focuses on optimizing energy consumption in walnut production by identifying and reducing excessive use of energy. A non-parametric input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied to analyze energy efficiency of different walnut producers in Iran. DEA was used to model efficiency as an explicit function of human labor, machinery, fertilizers-chemicals and irrigation energies. The result of DEA analysisshows substantial inefficiency between the walnut producers in the studied area, withthe main difference between efficient and inefficient producers being in the use of chemicals, potash, machinery and irrigation water. The use of chemicals such as insecticides and herbicides for efficient producers was considerably less than inefficient ones by 90.21 % and 77.5 %.