Abstract

In this study a non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to estimate the energy efficiencies of wheat producers based on six energy inputs including human power, diesel fuel, machinery manufacture and depreciation, water for irrigation, transportation, seed, fertilizer, and chemicals also with single output of grain yield. This study helps to rank efficient and inefficient farmers and to identify optimal energy requirement and wasteful uses of energy. Data were collected using face-to-face surveys from 90 farms in Khozestan Province which is the most important center of wheat production in Iran. Based on the results, average energy consumption for wheat production was 58367.69 MJha^-1. Also, the results of DEA application showed that, the technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies of farmers were 87.97, 91.18, and 96%, respectively. Moreover, energy saving target ratio for wheat production was calculated as 15%, indicating that by following the recommendations resulted from this study, about 8755.1 MJ ha^-1 of total input energy could be saved while holding the constant level of wheat yield.

Key words: Data enveloping analysis, efficient units, energy efficiency, technical efficiency.