A hybrid method of parametric-factor analysis in land suitability evaluation for Ferula communis

Due to the constant decline in arable land, it is essential to identify the best areas for sustainable agriculture.

In the present study, the factor analysis (FA) by principal component analysis (PCA) method as multivariate statistical was applied to evaluate the Land suitability zonation of 36700 points for Ferula plantation in North Khorasan Province, NE Iran. For this purpose, extracted 16 variables were processed, resulting in four factors that explain about 90 % of the total variance.

The explained variances of these factors varied from 25.519 to 9.078 % for factors 1 and 4 after the Varimax rotation, respectively. The zonation map of land suitability revealed that 27.02% (6885/93 km2) of the surface area was moderately suitable, 67/20% (17125/36 km2) was marginally applicable and 5.78% (1474.52 km2) of the region was unsuitable for Ferula production. The moderate suitability class of S2 was mainly distributed within the middle, and northeastern parts of the province, while the southern part of the study area and some scattered parts within the northwest exhibited unsuitability for Ferula production.