Sustainability Assessment and Cropping Pattern Determination in Farming Systems Based on the Optimization of Soil and Water Resources Utilization Using Non-linear Mathematical Programming Models

Studying the sustainability of farming systems entails the integrated assessment of the strong interdependence between their environmental, economic and social attributes. Optimum allocation of water resources in a farming system improves the conservation and sustainability status of resources in addition to reducing the socio-economical damages. In order to analyze and assess the different aspects of farm management and agricultural systems planning, a number of mathematical programming models have been developed in recent decades. The purpose of this article was to assess and analyse the sustanability and determine the appropriate pattern of cropping in a rural farming system, namely, south Baraan located in the east of Isfahan city. In order to incorporate environmental, economic and social dimentions, two criteria of maximum net return and employment creation per unit of agricultural water consumption were defined as system’s sustainability indicators. Thus, the ratios “net return / water consumption” and “employment / water consumption” were optimized by using single and multiple objective fractional programming models. The economic and social efficiency of each unit of agricultural water consumption was computed and compared in several single and multiple objective scenarios of linear and fractional programming models, and finally the most appropriate patterns of cropping for the region were determined based on the available land, water and human resources of the region.