Evaluation of Agricultural Sustainability Indicators and Determination of Cropping Patterns with Emphasis on Deficit Irrigation Strategy: the Case of the Qazvin Irrigation Network, Iran

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different levels of water consumption reduction in different growing stages as deficit-irrigation scenarios based on economic, social, and environmental criteria in line with agricultural sustainability of the Qazvin irrigation network. In order to maximize farm income, the positive mathematical programming (PMP) method along with the maximum entropy (ME) were used on the basis of crop yield response functions comparing to water in the space of other constraints. Then, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was hired to calculate the weight of the major indices and their sub-indices, and in the final stage, the best-ranked scenarios were selected using Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) approach. The information required for this study was obtained via two-stage cluster sampling method by completing 144 questionnaires. The results showed that applying different deficit-irrigation scenarios on crop growth stages that yield formation was of less susceptibility to water stress, leads to a cropping pattern in favor of crops that generate more revenue (such as Alfalfa) for less water use. Also, the results of weights for the economic (43.4), social (18.1), and environmental (38.5) indices showed that economic indicator is of great importance. Five scenarios used in this study. The scenario ranking process showed that the S1 scenario (5% reduction of deficit-irrigation at ripening stage for wheat, barley, fodder maize, grain corn and beet, and 5% decrease at vegetative growth stage of Alfalfa) was selected as the best and also the most desirable state of sustainability in agriculture scenarios.