Investigating the Energy Consumption and Economic Indices for Sweet-Cherry and Sour-Cherry Production in Northeastern Iran

The aim of this study was to investigate the energy consumption and production costs of sweet-cherry and sour-cherry in Northeastern Iran. Required data were collected from 75 sweet-cherry and 42 sour-cherry producers. The total energy inputs in sweet-cherry and sour-cherry production were estimated as 37.76 and 31.03 GJha-1, respectively. The energy efficiency of sweet-cherry production was greater than sour-cherry production. Chemical fertilizers and diesel fuel were the most highly consumed energies in both crops. The higher share of non-renewable energies consumed to produce sweet-cherry than sour-cherry revealed that sweet-cherry production was more dependent on non-renewable sources compared with the sour-cherry production. The economic analysis revealed that production costs for sweet-cherry were higher than sour-cherry but sweet-cherry was more profitable than sour-cherry because of premium prices for sweet-cherry. The modeling results showed that the human labor input had the most impact on costs of both crops. As a consequence, the main practical solutions could be saving in diesel fuel and fertilizer management, which could more properly overcome economic and energy problems in the two crops.