Evaluation of the sustainability of Water- Energy- Food systems Nexus in agricultural products: Case of Dehgolan County.

Today, agricultural resource management is a fundamental task for managers and planners due to the need to address the challenging issues between the supply and demand sectors. Accordingly, many researchers have emphasized that water, food, and energy in the world are experiencing significant stress and scarcity, and demand for these resources will increase significantly in the coming decades. The main purpose of this study is to provide a method for decision makers in analysing the link between water, energy and food in the crop production system at the regional level and to perform a quantitative evaluation of it, which can be used to create a suitable and optimal cultivation pattern with Pay attention to the available resources of the area used.

The present article was conducted to evaluate the water-food-energy relations of agricultural products in Dehgolan County. The required data were collected through face-to-face interviews with farmers and agricultural jihad statistics. The proposed method of this paper is based on six indicators of water and energy consumption, mass productivity of water and energy and economic productivity of water and energy. Based on the set of these indicators, a water-food-energy index (WFENI) was calculated for each product. This method was applied to evaluate 7 main crops of wheat, potato, alfalfa, cucumber, barley, carrot and rapeseed in water farms of Dehgolan County in water year 2019-2020.

The results of data analysis showed that alfalfa and potatoes had the highest water consumption (13131 cubic meters per hectare) and energy (85404 megajoules per hectare), respectively. Barley had the lowest water consumption (4197 cubic meters per hectare) and energy consumption (31394.4 megajoules per hectare). The use of chemical fertilizers had the largest share in the energy sector (except alfalfa). In alfalfa crop, due to high mechanization operations, machinery had the largest share of energy consumption. Carrot was the most productive in water consumption (7.08 kg/ m3) and energy (1.03 kg/ mJ). ). Also, the lowest water and energy efficiency for canola (0.44 kg / m3) and energy (0.06 kg / MJ) were obtained. In the economic index of water and energy productivity, the highest values were obtained for cucumber (92959 Rials per cubic meter) and carrot (13202 Rials per megajoule), respectively. The lowest economic efficiency of water and energy was calculated with (1549 Rials per cubic meter) for carrots and (10688 Rials per megajoule) for canola. This study showed that the WEFNI calculated for carrot, cucumber, potato, wheat, barley, canola and alfalfa crops in Dehgolan city, respectively 0.86, 0.73, 0.51, 0.41, 4 / 0, 0.3 and 0.26. Carrots received the highest score WFENI (best score) and alfalfa the lowest score (worst score). Although potato, which is one of the water crops with a high level of cultivation in the region, has high water and energy consumption, but due to its high physical productivity and economic productivity, it obtained the third score of the total index.

In this study, agricultural products were compared based on indicators of water and energy consumption, physical productivity of water and energy and economic productivity of water and energy. Based on these indicators, the water, food and energy link index was calculated. The results can also be used as an effective tool to determine appropriate strategies for cultivation pattern, management of water and energy resources in the region and a basis for planning and agricultural policies in the county.