Feasibility of suitable areas for alfalfa cultivation with AHP, FAHP, ANP and WLC methods in GIS environment (case study: Ardabil province)

The alfalfa plant with the scientific name Medicago sativa L is considered the most important fodder plant in the world and it is a very high quality fodder suitable for all kinds of livestock (Kirimi, 2002). Alfalfa fodder plant is known as the queen of fodder plants in terms of nutritional value and palatability due to the variety of species compared to other fodder plants (Toran et al., 2017). In Iran, the area under alfalfa cultivation is 340,767 hectares and its production amount is 3,551,850 tons, and in Ardabil province, the area under alfalfa cultivation is 9,065 hectares and the annual production amount of alfalfa is 63,105 tons (Ministry of Jihad Agriculture, 2020). Examining weather data and their effect on plants is one of the most important factors in increasing productivity. Therefore, each area has potential and limitations regarding crop cultivation that is compatible with a specific climate, which studies the feasibility of suitable areas for cultivation. The main goal of this research is to locate alfalfa fodder cultivation in Ardabil province using water and meteorological criteria during alfalfa growth period. The difference between the present research and other studies in this field is that it studies the efficiency of four methods during the alfalfa fodder growth period.

Ardabil province is located in the northwest of Iran, and its location is in the latitude of 37 degrees and 45 minutes to 39 degrees and 42 minutes of north latitude and the geographical longitude of 47 degrees and 3 minutes to 48 degrees and 55 minutes of east longitude. In this research, from the data of annual precipitation, average annual temperature, minimum annual temperature and maximum annual temperature, six synoptic stations during the statistical period (1990 to 2020) and the height and slope of the land, as well as from the software; ARC GIS, Export Choice and Super Decision have been used. In order to weight and locate alfalfa crops, the methods of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Analytical Network Model (ANP), Fuzzy Hierarchical Process (FAHP) and Weighted Method (WLC) have been used.

In this research, alfalfa fodder cultivation location in Ardabil province was evaluated and investigated using AHP, FAHP, ANP and WLC methods. In the AHP method, the results with ExportChoice software analysis showed that annual precipitation with a weight of 0.377, average temperature with a weight of 0.258, and maximum temperature with a weight of 0.112 were respectively recognized as the most important criteria during the alfalfa growth period. The results of the FAHP method study showed that precipitation with a weight of 0.367, average temperature with a weight of 0.259, and minimum temperature with a weight of 0.105 are respectively effective in the stages of alfalfa fodder cultivation. In the ANP method with the analysis of Super Dicision software, the results showed that temperature criteria (average, minimum and maximum) with a weight of 0.404, annual precipitation with a weight of 0.289 and topography (height and slope) with a weight of 0.056 are the most important effective parameters, respectively. During the growth period, fodder is alfalfa. By combining the studied criteria during the growth period of alfalfa fodder with the WLC method in the GIS environment, the location of alfalfa cultivation in Ardabil province was done.

The final results of the data analysis with the studied methods showed that rainfall, temperature and topography criteria respectively play an important role during the alfalfa growth period and also by combining the data; A location map of alfalfa fodder cultivation in Ardabil province was prepared. About 22% is very suitable, 21% is suitable, 23% is slightly suitable and 24% is unsuitable for alfalfa cultivation and The results of network analysis (ANP) showed that; Pars Abad region with a score of 238/., Sablan and Meshkin Shahr area with a score of 226/. domain with a score of 228/. compared to other studied stations, they have priority for alfalfa cultivation. Therefore, it is suggested; A- Studies that are carried out with multi-criteria methods on agricultural products, their weighting should be done based on the study of the optimal climatic needs of that crop by the researcher, not through a questionnaire. B- Ardabil province is suitable for the cultivation of alfalfa fodder in terms of climatic conditions and place. It is recommended to grow alfalfa fodder instead of non-strategic crops that require a lot of water.