Effects of Population Change and Agricultural Value Added on Agricultural Energy Intensity in Iran

According to the vital role of agricultural sector in economy of Iran, the effects of population and agricultural value added changes on agricultural energy intensity was investigated for 24 provinces in Iran by employing annual data from 2001 to 2016. The panel auto regressive distribution lag (Panel ARDL) was applied after testing the panel stationary properties of the variables. The results showed that the relationship between migration from rural to urban areas and agricultural energy intensity are negative and its elasticity in the long run equals -0.07 percent. Agricultural population and increase in agricultural human activities have significant positive relationships with agricultural intensity and the long-term elasticity of the working population in agriculture is 0.326 percent. The empirical results support a statistically significant inverted U-shaped relationship between agricultural energy intensity and value added of agricultural sector. Also, the point of return for the Kuznets curve was about 15 trillion Rials. To decrease the environmental effect of energy consumption intensity, the renewable energy and green energy should be used.