optimization of energy consumption and mitigation of greenhouses gas emissions of irrigated lentil production using data envelopment analysis

in this study, the optimization of energy consumption and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of irrigated lentil production in esfahan province were conducted using data envelopment analysis (dea) method. the used data were collected randomly from 140 lentil producers using a face to face questionnaire method in the cropping season of 2014-2015. based on two dea models of constant returns to scale (crs) and variable returns to scale (vrs), the average values of technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency were calculated as 0.960, 0.991 and 0.961, respectively. by consumption of optimum values of inputs, the total energy saving was estimated 1031 mj/ha, i.e., 3.12% the total energy consumption, in which, irrigation water and nitrogen fertilizers with the shares of 35% and 15%, respectively, had the most contribution on the total energy saving. total ghg emission at actual and optimum conditions were calculated as 930.45 and 882.17 kgco2eq. per ha, respectively (5.18% reduction in total ghg emission)..