Investigation of Energy Consumption for Button Mushroom Production (Agaricus Bisporus) under Different Annual Growing Area in Khorasan Razavi Province

In this study, the energy consumption of button mushroom production in Khorasan Razavi province (Iran) was calculated. Data were collected from 13 production units with face to face questionnaire method. The production units were divided into three levels (categories) based on their area as: smaller than 7,000 m2 , 7,000-20,000 m2 and larger than 20,000 m2 . The results showed that the energy input per areafor the production of button mushroom was 2,480.86 MJ.m-2 . In between the the different energy sources, the highest share of energy consumption belonged to fuel (79.76%) followed by wheat straw (12.40%) and machinery (5.59%). The Cobb-Douglass model results revealed that the wheat corn and poultry manure had the highest regression coefficient (1.30 and 0.77) among the other inputs (for button mushroom and by-product compost production). Furthermore, the effect of poultry manure input on button mushroom yield was significant at the level of 5%. The production units with cultivated area of 7,000-20,000 m2 consumed the least amount of energy and had the highest energy ratio.