Selecting Energy Efficient Poultry Egg Producers: A Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

This study examined the energy use pattern of poultry for egg production farms of iran andranked the selected farmers using fuzzy data envelopment analysis (fdea) from the viewpoint ofenergy efficiency. since data used in our study were not measured precisely, fuzzy forms of themcould help us to reach the ideal situations. hence, the conventional data envelopment analysis (dea)was remodeled using triangular fuzzy numbers and finally the resulted efficiency scores of decisionmaking units (dmus) were compared. those with efficiency score of less than one were reported asinefficient units and they were also ranked by calculating an index. the results of this study indicatedthat from 40 poultry farms selected randomly, 33 of them were inefficient. fdea was performedusing α-cut approach and eleven α-levels (0 to 1 by 0.1) were examined. according to our results, theefficiency scores showed a decreasing trend as α- levels increasing to crisp situations. it is obvious thatapplying fuzzy data can show the real situation more accurately. based on the results of this study,decision makers and farmers can improve their attitudes against energy use and applying wellestablished practices. to achieve this, firstly, we should distinguish efficient units from inefficientones..