The Relationship between Energy Inputs and Crop Yield in Greenhouse Basil Production

This study was conducted to determine a relationship between energy input and yield ingreenhouse basil production in esfahan province, iran. data were collected from 26greenhouse basil producers through a face-to-face questionnaire. the data collectedbelonged to the production period of 2009–2010 with the following results obtained. atotal energy input of 236,057 mj ha^-1 was estimated to be required for basil production.the share of electricity (75.68% of the total energy input) was the highest form of energyrequired. the expense was followed by plastic cover (9.69%) and chemical fertilizerspending (7.28%), respectively. the energy ratio, productivity, specific, and net energieswere found out as 0.25, 0.11 kg mj^-1, 9 mj kg^-1 and -177377 mj ha^-1, respectively. adetermination of the efficient allocation of energy resources was modeled through cobb–douglas production function. the results of econometric model estimation revealed thatthe impact of energies spent in the form of human labour and plastic coverings on yieldwas significantly positive at 1% level. sensitivity analysis of the energy inputs revealedthat the marginal physical productivity (mpp) value related to human labour wasestimated as the highest.