Identifyingand Ranking the Agricultural Challenges of Guilan Province Using the Hierarchical Analysis Process

The purpose of this study is to introduce the most important challenges in advancing agricultural development in Guilan province. For this purpose, hierarchical analysis process was used to identify and rank the challenges of the agricultural sector of Guilan province. In this regard, six effective criteria along with 21 sub-criteria were considered. To determine the weight of criteria and sub-criteria, questionnaires based on pairwise comparisons were prepared and experts from Ministry of Agriculture Jihad of Guilan province were questioned to complete the questionnaires and the Expert Choice software was used to perform the calculations. According to the results, criteria of managerial challenges (0.368), fragmentation of land (0.229), lack of conversion and complementary industries and specialized and skilled human labor (0.155), resource limitation and land use change (0.126), low level of mechanization in the agricultural sector (0.076) and single crop cultivation and uncontrolled import of agricultural products (0.047) were ranked, respectively. Also inadequate use of inadequate resources and investments (0.157), failure to use supportive and credit policies (0.121) and non-payment of subsidies as a percentage of premiums to all insurers equally and irresponsible view of government and insurers on agricultural insurance (0.085), are three important sub-criteria with respect to the maximum weight obtained.