Energy efficiency analysis for chickpea production under dry farming system in Ravansar county of Iran

In this study a non-parametric method of data envelopment analysis (DEA) was applied to analyze the efficiency of farmers, discriminate efficient farmers from inefficient ones and to identify wasteful uses of energy in order to optimize the energy inputs for chickpea production under dry farming system in Ravansar county of Kermanshah province, Iran. DEA application indicated that from the total of ۸۰ farmers, considered for the analysis, ۱۶ and ۵۸ units were found to be technically and pure technically efficient, respectively. The technical, pure technical and scale efficiency scores of chickpea farmers were ۰.۸۴۹, ۰.۹۰۲, and ۰.۸۵۵, respectively. Optimum energy requirement was found about ۴۸۷۹ MJ ha-۱; indicating that ۲۳.۸۰% of total energy input could be saved if the recommendations of this study are followed. Moreover, among all energy inputs, the highest potential for saving energy was belonged to diesel fuel with ۸۶.۱۰% of total energy saving.

Keywords:

Chickpea , Data envelopment analysis , Dry farming , Energy , Optimization