Effects of Increasing Price of Energy Carriers on Energy Consumption in Pistachio Production: Case Study in Rafsanjan, Iran

As one of the most important products of Iran, pistachio has a significant share in non-oil revenues. Its annual foreign exchange earnings are over ۸۰۰ million dollars. However, production of this nut in the country’s major production centers is faced with many problems regarding the efficiency and productivity of the inputs. This study was performed by using two-stage cluster sampling method. The results showed that with the increase in energy carriers’ prices, the farmers of the region would tend to use the optimal amounts of inputs in the long term, thus, reducing energy consumption from ۴۶,۰۱۶.۷۲ to ۳۱,۰۹۲ MJ ha-۱. Also, the present values of energy productivity, its efficiency, and specific energy of, respectively, ۰.۰۳, ۰.۴۲, and ۳۵.۰۵ MJ kg-۱ would be optimized to ۰.۰۷, ۱.۱۰ and ۱۳.۴۷ MJ kg-۱. Besides, it was revealed that the net energy, which was negative under the existing condition (-۲۶,۵۳۲ MJ), would increase to ۳,۱۶۰ MJ following the increase in the price of energy carriers. Above all, the non-renewable energy consumption would be reduced from ۳۹,۷۴۳ to ۲۶,۴۵۷ MJ. Of course, to achieve the mentioned results, government support of farmers in the short term is necessary in order to facilitate and expedite the change in technology.

Keywords:

Energy carriers , Input-output , Price elasticity , Pistachio production , Profit maximization