Agroclimatic Zoning of Sainfoin Fodder Cultivation with Simultaneous Application of AHP, TOPSIS, Shannon Antropy and WLC Methods (Case study: Ardabil province).

Sainfoin fodder plant is one of the fodder legumes, which is considered among fodder plants in terms of producing good, high-quality and acceptable fodder and competing with alfalfa fodder. Cultivation of this plant is not only compatible with cold regions, it is also established and cultivated well in tropical regions. A study of the morphological stages and evolution of Sainfoin fodder yield in spring season in (first China) showed that Sainfoin fodder has many species in 9 growth periods and is considered one of the most important pasture and crop fodder plants, and the place of its cultivation is the Iranian-Turanian region. In recent years, the development of Sainfoin fodder cultivation has been promoted with the combination of alfalfa fodder, which was effective in increasing the weight of livestock. Also, in Saskatchewan, Canada, in order to provide safe food for livestock, evaluation of Sainfoin and alfalfa fodder cultivation was carried out using rainfall and temperature, and the results showed that temperature and rainfall play an effective role during the growth period from germination to harvest of these fodder plants. The main goal of this research is the zoning of Sainfoin fodder cultivation in Ardabil province using effective criteria during the Sainfoin growth period. The difference between the present research and the studies conducted in this field is that more criteria and new data were used, as well as the efficiency of four methods during the growth period of Sainfoin fodder.

Ardabil province is located in the northwest of Iran, between latitude 37 degrees 45 minutes to 39 degrees 42 minutes and longitude 47 degrees 3 minutes to 48 degrees 55 minutes (Figure 1). This province with an area equal to 17953 square kilometers, the minimum and maximum altitude of the province is 32 meters in Parsabad and 4811 meters in Sablan, respectively. In this research, the data of precipitation, average temperature, minimum temperature and maximum temperature during the statistical period (1990 to 2020) and altitude, land slope and soil depth were used, as well as ARC GIS and Export Choice software for data analysis and analysis process methods. Hierarchy (AHP), TOPSIS model, Shannon entropy and weighted linear combination (WLC) method were used for weighting and zoning. Hierarchical analysis process method The first step in the hierarchical analysis process is to determine the importance coefficient of the criteria, sub-criteria and options in Sainfoin fodder cultivation. Export Choice software was used to analyze the criteria in the hierarchical process. After determining the relative weight of the criteria, the inconsistency coefficient is calculated. If this coefficient is less than or equal to 0.1, the consistency in the judgments is acceptable. Topsis method The TOPSIS multi-criteria analysis process is as follows. Formation of data matrix: It is calculated based on m criteria and n options. Shannon entropy method The main idea of this method is that the greater the dispersion in the values of an index, the more important that index is. The steps of this method are as follows. Forming the data matrix: First, a two-dimensional matrix of options and indicators is formed, and the value of each indicator in each option is estimated using official statistics and field studies. And the closer the value of dj is to zero, it indicates of Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) method This method is the most common technique in multi-criteria analysis based on the concept of weighted average, where the final value of each specific option and the options that have the highest weight will be the target. Equation (12) is used to evaluate each option or Ai: where Xij represents the i-th option in relation to the j-th criterion and Wj is the standardized weight of the j-th criterion, so that the sum of Wj is equal to one. The relative importance weight of each criterion is displayed. By determining the maximum value of Ai, the most priority option is selected. In addition to combining all parameters or layers, the WLC method also considers the importance of each parameter based on the weight given to that parameter. Table (2) shows the optimal climatic requirement of spruce fodder cultivation.

In this research, to locate Sainfoin fodder cultivation from the studied methods and also from the criteria; Precipitation, average temperature, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, altitude, slope and soil depth were used. The results showed that in all methods; Precipitation has the most important effect during the growth period of Sainfoin; Therefore, precipitation is the most limiting criterion in the cultivation of Sainfoin fodder in Ardabil province. The results of the weight criteria with AHP, TOPSIS, and Shannon's Antropy methods showed that precipitation, average temperature and minimum temperature with the highest weight are respectively the most important influencing parameters in Sainfoin fodder cultivation. Also, the results of combining the criteria with the WLC method in the GIS environment showed that the lands of Ardabil province have very suitable (29%), suitable (40%), slightly suitable (26%) and unsuitable (5%) for growing Sainfoin fodder(Fig,5). The results of the weighted value by AHP method showed that precipitation with a weighted criterion of 0.143, maximum temperature of 0.126 and average temperature of 0.089 among the studied parameters have the greatest effect on the growth stages of Sainfoin Finally, with the use of TOPSIS methods, about 5% and Shannon's entropy about 12% of the area of the province is very suitable for cultivating Sainfoin fodder; Therefore, compared to the studied methods in this research, the results showed that the weighted linear combination (WLC) method is the most suitable method for the zoning of Sainfoin in Ardabil province compared to the current situation. Therefore, the suitable areas for growing spruce fodder are located in the north and center of Ardabil province, which is due to the suitable climatic and topographical conditions. Therefore, the suitable areas