Emergy Cost-Benefit Analysis of Cropping Systems for Sustainable Agriculture Development in the Sistan Region

Authors

1 Sistan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Zabol, Iran

2 Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agricultural Economics and Development, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

10.22069/jead.2025.23297.1883

Abstract

Achieving agricultural sustainability and reducing environmental pressure are two major goals of ecosystem management in the current century, which has been challenged by the lack of appropriate energy efficiency. The aim of this study is to analyze the energy cost-benefit of cropping systems in the sustainable agricultural development of the Sistan region. In this study, different sources of energy supply and important indicators of sustainability and environmental burden for three cultivation systems of wheat, Yaqouti grapes, and greenhouse cucumber in Sistan in 1402 were analyzed using the emergy cost-benefit analysis method. The results showed that the total energy consumed in the three cultivation systems of wheat, ruby grapes, and greenhouse cucumber was 1.06×1016, 1.94×1016, and 1.094×1018 solar joules per hectare, respectively. The energy efficiency index for the three cropping systems was 0.115, 0.28, and 0.035 kg/MJ, respectively, with the highest efficiency for Yaqouti grapes and the lowest efficiency for greenhouse cucumber. The benefit-cost ratio index for the three cultivation systems of wheat, Yaqouti grapes, and greenhouse cucumber was 1.6, 3.08, and 1.39, respectively, and the productivity index for the above three cultivation systems was 0.109, 0.154, and 0.001, respectively. The results show that although the greenhouse cucumber cultivation system apparently provides more income to the farmer, among the systems studied, the greenhouse cucumber cultivation system has the lowest benefit-to-cost ratio and the lowest productivity.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics