unveiling the most sustainable date production systems in mirjaveh, iran: an emergy-based approach

This study aimed to identify the most sustainable production system for mazafati and rabbi date palm cultivars in mirjaveh county, iran, during 2022-2023. data pertaining to cultivated area, date palm production and yield, export volume, as well as the environmental and economic inputs necessary for production, were gathered through documentary and survey methods. these data were then analysed for the two study systems. the input elements were subsequently transformed into emergy equivalents, sej. the data collected indicates that the total emergy needed to sustain the mazafati and rabbi date palm production systems was 3.33e+16 and 2.92e+16 sej/ha/yr, respectively. the majority of inputs for both the mazafati and rabbi date palm production systems came from purchased sources, making up 92.69% and 71.68% of the total inputs, respectively. the findings suggest that both systems impose substantial environmental burdens as a result of their lack of utilisation of renewable resources and heavy dependence on non-renewable inputs. hence, it is imperative and inevitable to decrease the utilisation of these resources in both date palm systems. based on the emegy exchane ratio and emergy to money ratio indices, the mazafati date palm system demonstrated higher values, indicating greater economic sustainability compared to the rabbi system. conversely, the emergy yield ratio was higher for the rabbi date palm, suggesting that this system is more sustainable than mazafati date palm production in terms of product yield. overall, the mazafati date palm system demonstrated a slight edge in terms of economic, commercial, and ecological sustainability.