Energy efficiency measurement of arrowroot production of Vietnam

Energy efficiency along with friendly agricultural production is becoming one of the priority concerns of many countries in the world including Vietnam. The objective of this study was to estimate energy indicators and to determine the number of optimum energy inputs of arrowroot farms in Backan province regarding different regions and farm categories by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique. Findings unveiled that arrowroot farms in Nari district had high energy indicators, i.e., energy ratio, energy productivity, net energy, as compared to other farms in Babe district. The technical and pure technical efficiency and the amount of potential GHG emission reduction found to be higher in Babe district than that in Nari district. Farms in Nari district had opportunities to reduce energy input with slightly higher than that in Babe district (54.54% and 53.61%, respectively). Regarding farm sizes, other than specific energy, small arrowroot farms had the highest energy indicators as compared to other farm size groups. Thus, small farms had the quantity of optimum energy input (392.76 MJ acre-1), saving energy (509.70 MJ acre-1) and amount of GHG emission reduction (4.26 kg CO2-eq/acre) which were more than the others. Based on the results of this study, the suggested solutions to improve the energy efficiency and reduce the adverse effects of arrowroot production to the environment should focus on developing the extension activities as well as short technological training courses for farmers addressing on raising awareness of energy conservation when applying chemical fertilizer and other input factors.