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Assessment of food-energy-environmental pollution nexus in Iran: the nonlinear approach

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Abstract

Iran’s agricultural production has expanded significantly in recent years. Environmental pollution caused by the use of energy and chemical fertilizers, depletion of groundwater resources, and soil erosion, on the other hand, demonstrates a lack of attention to the environmental dimension of production in this country. In addition to these issues, climate change has exacerbated the agriculture sector’s difficulties. This study intends to investigate the asymmetric relationship between energy consumption, chemical fertilizer consumption, CO2 emissions, temperature changes, and production from 1961 to 2019 using the NARDL approach and Granger causality test in the frequency domain (Breitung and Candelon.). Short-term and long-term estimates revealed that the positive and negative shock effects of energy consumption on production are both positive. As a result, it was observed that the negative shock of increased energy consumption had a greater influence on agricultural output than the positive shock. In the long run, the positive shock of fertilizer use has a positive effect on and improves production. But the effect of a negative shock is insignificant. Furthermore, the negative shock of CO2 emission has a positive effect on production. Finally, positive and negative shocks in temperature changes were discovered to have an increasing and reducing influence on production. The results of the Granger causality test in the frequency domain test showed that there is a bidirectional causality relationship between energy consumption and agro-production in the long term. There is also unidirectional causality from CO2 emissions and fertilizer consumption to production and from production to climate change. According to the findings, reforming energy prices, investing in mechanized agriculture, shifting away from fossil fuel consumption towards renewable energy, and tending to green growth are all necessary to achieve multiple goals such as optimizing energy consumption, reducing environmental pollution, and improving efficiency.

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Data availability

The data is accessible from the corresponding author (Mahmoud Ahmadpour Borazjani) upon request.

Notes

  1. Brock, Dechert, and Scheinkman.

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Funding

Authors would like to acknowledge the financial support for this study provided by the University of Zabol using Grant code IR-UOZ-GR-8086.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran

    Seyed Mohammadreza Mahdavian, Mahmoud Ahmadpour Borazjani & Hamid Mohammadi

  2. Unit of Agroecology, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran

    Mohammad Reza Asgharipour

  3. Department of Agricultural Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Hamed Najafi Alamdarlo

Authors
  1. Seyed Mohammadreza Mahdavian
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  2. Mahmoud Ahmadpour Borazjani
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Contributions

S. M. M. (Mahdavian) has contributed to idea conceptualization of the study, data curation, software, methodology, design, analysis, and conclusion; reviewed the edited manuscript; writing–original draft and approved the final submission. M. A.B (Ahmadpour Borazjani): supervision, design and conclusion, reviewed the edited manuscript, and approved submission. H. M. (Mohammadi): literature search and conclusion. M.R A. (Asgharipour): review and editing, reviewed the edited manuscript. H. N.A (Najafi Alamdarlo): supervision, design and conclusion, reviewed the edited manuscript, and approved submission.

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Correspondence to Seyed Mohammadreza Mahdavian or Mahmoud Ahmadpour Borazjani.

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Mahdavian, S.M., Ahmadpour Borazjani, M., Mohammadi, H. et al. Assessment of food-energy-environmental pollution nexus in Iran: the nonlinear approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 52457–52472 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19280-1

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