Relative Efficiency Analysis of Biomass Agricultural Plants using Data Envelopment Analysis

Abstract

Renewable energy has recently been a promising interest as a substitute for fossil fuels due to an increasing energy demand as well as a rising concern over the environmental impact of fossil fuel consumption around the globe. Biofuel, in particular, is a type of renewable energy, which can be derived from various biomass types. In this research, we analyze relative efficiencies using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique from three types of energy-related plants in the Northeastern region of Thailand, which are cassava, sugarcane, and palm. The relative efficiency of each province is further analyzed during 2017 to 2019 for a comparative study. Next, the input criteria are collected including allowable planting area, labor cost, and rainfall amount; whereas the included output criterion is the quantity of harvested product. Our initial analysis using CCR, BBC, and Scale Efficiency (SE) models of DEA provides the baseline of efficient provinces to be benchmarked and directions for improving inefficient provinces, given desired input and output criteria in this study.