Optimizing agricultural inputs to enhance sustainability by reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions

Sustainable agriculture aims to ensure food security while protecting natural resources and maintaining a responsible chain from soil to table. Input optimization in agricultural production can reduce energy use and carbon emissions without compromising yield. This study demonstrates that energy use and carbon emissions in corn production in Konya province, located in the Central Anatolia region of Türkiye, can be reduced through an input optimization approach and highlights potential policy measures for this purpose. DEA is a method that guides decision-makers on how to improve the efficiency of relatively inefficient units. The study results distinguish efficient from inefficient enterprises and suggest ways to reduce energy use and carbon emissions from inefficient enterprises. Input optimization can reduce total energy use by 12.01% (7646.2 MJ/ha) and carbon emissions by 10.25% (552.79 kg CO₂-eq/ha). Furthermore, the study reveals that if currently inefficient enterprises produce with the optimum input combination, energy use could be reduced by 18.1% and carbon emissions by 15.7%. These findings demonstrate that the environmental pressure of agriculture can be mitigated without compromising food production, and that the results indicate not only economic benefits but also sustainability in agriculture. This highlights that input optimization can serve as a basis for both economic and environmental policies.