Optimal allocation of water resources in the agricultural sector between selected crops in rural areas of Sistan

The critical situation of water resources in arid and semi-arid regions of Iran, especially the Sistan region, has faced a serious problem in the process of sustainable development in this region. Insufficient attention to the optimal management of agricultural water resources and the continuation of some current incorrect methods is one of the main factors in the failure to achieve sustainable agricultural and rural development. In this research, with the optimal management of the Hirmand River in the agricultural sector, an attempt has been made to develop the agricultural and rural sectors of the Sistan region. For this purpose, game theory has been used to allocate water between agricultural lands in rural areas of Sistan in 2020-2021. The meta-heuristic algorithm was used to run the game, combining a dynamic genetic algorithm and fuzzy programming method. The results showed that the use of the proposed model could lead to an efficient and fair distribution of water between irrigated areas and different crops so that maximum profit is obtained from this allocation and by increasing irrigation efficiency from 35 to 50 and 70% of the total profit will increase from 314810 to 544390 and 896050 million Rials. According to the results of this study, it is suggested that high-yield crops such as onions and melons be replaced with low-yield crops such as wheat and barley. Also, due to the water crisis in the Sistan region, the results of Stackelberg game modeling in this study can be used for optimal water allocation in the Sistan region.