An Analysis of Improving Energy Use with Data Envelopment Analysis in Horticultural Products in Yazd Province: Case Study Pistahio

Pistachio is considered as an important agricultural commodity in Iran and ranks top amongst all exported agricultural products. Wide and inefficient use of energy in agriculture sector is leading to waste of energy and environmental problems. Conducting an overall energy survey and economic analysis of pistachio production can provide useful information for improving energy efficiency. In this paper, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique was applied for pistachio producers to analyze the Energy inputs-yield relationship. The data was collected from 70 producer in the summer of 2013 using random sampling. The results revealed that the total energy input for pistachio production was 129411.8 MJ ha–1. Energy use efficiency was 0.41, energy productivity was 0.03 (〖Kg Mj〗^(-1)), specific energy 29.41 (〖Mj Kg〗^(-1)) and Net energy -77481.8 (〖Mj h〗^(-1)) were estimated. Technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies were calculated. The VRS analysis showed that only 33 of DMUs were efficient. The results revealed that production of pistachios in Yazd Province, under current management practices, are not energy efficient and efforts should be made to improve energy use efficiency and DEA is an effective tool to analyze and benchmark productive efficiency of farms.