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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Sustainable Food Processing
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1427530
This article is part of the Research Topic Sustainable Drying Technologies for Foods: Enhancing Quality and Energy Efficiency View all 5 articles

Evaluation and Comparison of energy use efficiency among cucumber greenhouses

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Ph.D. Graduate, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, School of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran., Jiroft, Iran
  • 2 Shiraz University, Shiraz, Fars, Iran

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Construction of agricultural greenhouses can be considered as one of the appropriate solutions to meet the growing food demands. However, high energy use in greenhouse productions on the one hand and energy limitation on the other hand are fundamental challenges facing mankind.The present study aims to measure and compare energy efficiency based on the components of energy use sustainability (Environmental Norms, Environmental Beliefs, Environmental Values, Technical Management, Technical Knowledge, Education Level, Greenhouse's Work Experience, Cost-Effectiveness and Educational -Extension Service) among greenhouse cucumber growers. The statistical population included cucumber production greenhouse owners in Kerman Province, Iran. Out of the total population, 356 cases were selected as a sample using two-stage cluster sampling method. The results showed that the average energy efficiency in the studied units was 0.72 (out of 1), so that 21 and 335 greenhouses used energy efficient and inefficient, respectively. According to the components of energy use sustainability, a significant difference was observed between efficient and inefficient greenhouses, so that the energy efficient greenhouses have a high level of related components. It is suggested that the decisionmakers, stakeholders, and active policy makers in the field of greenhouse crops should consider all the components of energy use sustainability, so that the developed policies and programs can cover all dimensions and take into account different aspects of energy use sustainability. As the results of this study can serve as a reference for other similar areas.

    Keywords: energy efficiency, Greenhouse cucumbers, Technical management, Technical knowledge, Cost-Effectiveness, Educational -Extension Service

    Received: 03 May 2024; Accepted: 23 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Behroozeh, Hayati, Karami, Nassiri and Rezaei-Moghaddam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Dariush Hayati, Shiraz University, Shiraz, 71345, Fars, Iran

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.