Evaluation of the environmental efficiency of the agricultural sector in comparison with other economic sectors of Iran by DEA method and Malmquist index

Extended Abstract
Introduction and

Environmental pollution, issues and problems in the field of environment and its effects on the global environment are one of the main challenges and serious crisis of today's world, in such a way that countries, in addition to internal policies and measures, organize environmental issues in the international field also follows.

The study purpose is to investigate the level of environmental efficiency of selected economic sectors in Iran. For this purpose, panel data of selected economic sectors and sub-sectors of Iran (agriculture, oil, industry, transportation, and domestic, commercial, and public sectors) during the period from 1996 to 2018 have been used. The level of environmental efficiency has been estimated using the data envelopment analysis method based on mathematical programming, and the Malmquist index has been calculated to examine the progress or decline of the environmental efficiency of each economic sector. The variables used in the study include labor and capital as inputs and value-added as the desired output and carbon dioxide emissions as the undesirable output.

The agricultural and oil sectors are environmentally efficient during the study period, and the transportation sector has the lowest environmental efficiency. The highest average value of environmental efficiency is related to the agricultural sector, which is an acceptable result due to the fact that in this research we have considered the level of carbon dioxide pollution. The results of technological changes indicate that all sectors are moving towards progress, and the highest average value is related to the transportation sector and the lowest average value is related to the agricultural sector.

According to the research findings, the sectors that are less efficient have higher energy consumption, such as the transportation sector and the industry sector. Therefore, in order to reduce the amount of energy consumption and reduce the emission of environmental pollutants, it is possible to use low-carbon light fuels instead of heavy fuels, to use non-conventional fuels with low carbon such as waste materials, waste fuels and biomass, and to use hybrid filter technology to reduce pollutants. On the other hand, incentives and punishment are also very effective. The government should think of incentive measures to encourage efficient sectors, for example, it can give priority to the consumption of resources with lower prices to the agriculture sector and sectors that operate with less energy consumption and less biological pollution. Paying subsidies to efficient sectors is also effective. In order to protect the environment against the emission of carbon dioxide gas, selected economic sectors should go towards the consumption of high-quality fuels and clean energy, and the government should go towards supporting the development of renewable energy consumption.