The Economic Impacts of Using Renewable Energy Technologies for Irrigation Water Pumping and Nanoparticle Fertilizers on Agri-Food Production in Iraq

Abstract

While traditional energy sources such as oil, coal, and natural gas drive economic growth, they also seriously affect people’s health and the environment. Renewable energies (RE) are presently seen as an efficient choice for attaining long-term sustainability in development. They provide an adequate response to climate change and supply sufficient electricity. The current situation in Iraq results from a decades-long scarcity of proper electricity, which has impacted various industries, including agriculture. There are diverse prospects for using renewable energy sources to address the present power crisis. The economic and environmental impacts of renewable energy systems were investigated in this study by using the solar pumping irrigation system and nanoparticle fertilizers on agri-food productions with the Farm Simulation FARMSIM model. The results show that using all REs with Carefree Water Conditioner for water treatment resulted in the highest net present value and profit compared to other scenarios. The findings, however, indicate that the All RE scenario (using a solar irrigation system with a nanoparticle fertilizer system, a low-cost technology) is the most feasible and has the highest benefit–cost ratio. Due to high initial investment costs, all traditional approaches (using traditional irrigation and fertilizer systems) had a lower benefit–cost ratio than the other scenarios. According to simulation results, all four scenarios are profitable and feasible for implementation.