Author(s)

Habib Reyhani Farashah, Seyed Ahmad Tabatabaeifar, Ali Rajabipour, Paria Sefeedpari

Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.

The aim of this study was to determine energy consumption pattern and specifically to measure and benchmark the efficiency for white button mushroom production in Alburz province of Iran. The data used in this study were collected by interviewing mushroom producers in the region. In the surveyed farms, average yield and total energy consumption were calculated as around 208.46 kg·ton^-1 compost and 133.25 MJ·ton^-1, respectively. The results revealed that fossil fuel (40.43%), compost (30.45%) and electricity (27.42%) consumed the bulk of energy. The results of DEA approach also showed that 12 and 14 farmers had efficiency score of unity. Electricity and fossil fuel were found to be used in excess in target mushroom production farms. Moreover, we came to the conclusion that the total energy consumption can be reduced to 120.15 MJ·ton^-1 for mushroom production in which diesel fuel energy (50.89 MJ·ton^-1), FYM (37.32 MJ·ton^-1) and electricity (30.34 MJ·ton^-1) energies were considerably significant.

Energy; Technical Efficiency; Data Envelopment Analysis; White Button Mushroom Production

Farashah, H. , Tabatabaeifar, S. , Rajabipour, A. and Sefeedpari, P. (2013) Energy Efficiency Analysis of White Button Mushroom Producers in Alburz Province of Iran: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach. Open Journal of Energy Efficiency, 2, 65-74. doi: 10.4236/ojee.2013.22010.