Assessment of land suitability and agricultural production sustainability using a combined approach (Fuzzy-AHP-GIS): A case study of Mazandaran province, Iran

Abstract

This research was conducted to evaluate the sustainability of rice production using fuzzy logic in Mazandaran province, Iran. The untapped use of modern agricultural technology, such as agricultural machinery, has become a global dilemma, which has forced governments and environmentalists to take a serious stand against the dangers of massive non-standard agricultural practices in the environment. Three types of mechanization, socioeconomic, and economic modeling were used to determine the sustainability and their values were collected through interview method using a 320-item questionnaire from 2016 to 2018. Land evaluation was carried out using soil and climate characteristics, so that about 27.4% of the area was in the perfectly suitable range (S1), 35.2% in the appropriate range (S2), 19.5% in the critical range (S3), and 17.9% in the inappropriate range (N) for rice cultivation. Farmers were selected from two regions (R1 and R2) by the GIS on two lower levels and more than one hectare (A1, A2) according to agricultural methods (mechanical and traditional). The results showed that the highest and lowest means of the product were 4314.44 and 3501.95 kg ha−1, respectively. The sustainability of production was within the range of “sustainability” and “almost sustainable” in terms of mechanistic and economic factors in the fuzzy range of “moderate sustainability” and also with respect to social factors that are in a better position than mechanistic and economic indicators. Results of final sustainability model showed that the average of the lasting sustainability index was in the range of “almost unsustainable” and “moderate sustainability”.