Agricultural Land Use Decisions Research Articles

Geo-economic Feasibility of Apple Orchards Across Physiographic Divisions in Kashmir Valley, India

Financial investments in apple cultivation in Kashmir valley are increasingly recognized as key drivers of economic growth and employment creation. This paper presents a comprehensive economic analysis across physiographic divisions using precise economic indices that include cost-benefit analysis, project evaluation method and other socio-economic determinants. It relies on a primary survey of 866 farm-households selected across four physiographic divisions of the Kashmir valley viz- valley floor, karewas, foothills and side valleys. Results reveal that the karewas fetch the highest returns from an investment owing to its ideal geographical conditions. On contrary, the non-karewas belt was found to be trailing in one or more economic indices although the financial feasibility of investment in apple cultivation was still found satisfactory. The study affirms that agricultural land-use decisions at the micro-scale should be determined by the site-specific attributes and that economic indices are largely dictated by physical characteristics of land itself. While demonstrating the utility of land-use decisions in light of geographical factors, our results can assist both farmers and policy-makers to design a more adapted land use strategy for fostering financial investments in apple cultivation in the valley.

The framework of an agricultural land-use decision support system based on ecological environmental constraints

Agricultural land use is a complicated systems engineering. Modern agriculture faces increasingly more risks. Managers should obtain reliable information to assist in decision-making through certain methods that allow them to achieve an economic, social, and ecological environment that is crucial in coordinating the development of agricultural land-use patterns. This study proposes a framework of an agricultural land-use decision support system (LDSS) based on ecological environmental constraints according to the DSS design philosophy, which provides a scientific basis for managers to allocate land resources. This framework of LDSS consists of a land quality assessment module, an eco-economic coupling module, and a land-use optimisation module. Firstly, it establishes a natural-society-economic land quality evaluation system to simulate the comprehensive benefit relationship of land use. Secondly, it analyses the risks of soil, water, and ecological security in the process of land use; simulates and reveals the mechanism of occurrence; and completes the correlation equation expression between natural-economic-social indictor and land use risk. Based on different scenarios design, the ecological environmental risk factors are used as constraints. Finally, the multi-objective linear programming method is employed to calculate the optimal comprehensive benefits of land use and optimal land-use structure based on the constraints of the ecological environment. Then the study takes Changsha County, a high-intensification, main grain-producing area in Central and South China, as a case area to demonstrate the feasibility of the framework of LDSS, and draws the highest comprehensive benefits and optimal structure of land use under the premise that the rural ecological environment conforms to national standards. Case study shows that the LDSS framework is feasible, easy to operate, and easy to promote. The research results can provide efficient and practical support for managers to allocate land resources and formulate sustainable land-use policies rationally.

Priority setting in agricultural land-use types for sustainable development

AbstractEven in developing countries that are faced with ecological and socio-economic problems, agricultural areas are constrained by land-use laws to be developed in particular ways. This being the case, the major issues in these areas are a better quality of life and sustainable use of the limited resources. This necessitates planning for sustainable development and evaluating various qualitative and quantitative data in a single framework. Multicriteria or multipurpose decision analysis methods are appropriate for this purpose. Using these methods, physical, economical and social data, as well as planning goals, can be combined and evaluated in the context of sustainable development. These multicriteria methods have been documented widely in a variety of problem areas, but two multicriteria methods, namely AHP (analytic hierarchy process) and ELECTRE II (elimination and choice translating reality), have not been used extensively in agricultural land-use decisions in developing countries. However, in situations where decision-making criteria are non-commensurable, non-comparable or non-countable, and when it is necessary to evaluate the criteria together, as in agricultural land-use decisions, AHP and ELECTRE II methods are warranted. This study reviews these methods briefly and suggests their potential application in the agricultural land-use decision process in a developing country. For this purpose, these methods were sampled in Ziyaret Stream Basin in Adiyaman, which is part of the Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi (GAP) (South-eastern Anatolian Project) in the Republic of Turkey. The area could be characterized by its rural and agricultural features, although it is under the pressure of Adiyaman urban development. This study shows that both AHP and ELECTRE II methods can be applied successfully for the determination of agricultural land-use priorities, which are an essential part of the quality of life and of sustainable land-use studies.