Analytic Hierarchy Process Based Land Suitability for Organic Farming in the Arid Region

Pandian Mangan, Dinagarapandi Pandi, Mohd Anul Haq, Aniruddha Sinha, Rajagopal Nagarajan, Twinkle Dasani, Ismail Keshta and Mohammed Alshehri
Additional contact information
Pandian Mangan: AmnexInfotechnologies Pvt. Ltd., Ahmadabad 380052, Gujarat, India
Dinagarapandi Pandi: School of Civil Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai 600127, Tamil Nadu, India
Mohd Anul Haq: Department of Computer Science, College of Computer and Information Sciences, Majmaah University, Al-Majmaah 11952, Saudi Arabia
Aniruddha Sinha: Symbiosis Institute of Geoinformatics, Pune 411016, Maharashtra, India
Rajagopal Nagarajan: AmnexInfotechnologies Pvt. Ltd., Ahmadabad 380052, Gujarat, India
Twinkle Dasani: Symbiosis Institute of Geoinformatics, Pune 411016, Maharashtra, India
Ismail Keshta: Computer Science and Information Systems Department, College of Applied Sciences, AlMaarefa University, Ad Diriyah, Riyadh 13713, Saudi Arabia
Mohammed Alshehri: Department of Information Technology, College of Computer and Information Sciences, Majmaah University, Al-Majmaah 11952, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: The use of organic farming in the Thar desert region (great Indian desert) is extremely low due to the low humidity and high temperatures across India. As a result, the desert area faces significant challenges in agricultural production and in meeting the demand for high-quality food. Thus, the farming community in this area needs to expand to meet the required demands. Geospatial technologies are capable of recommending suitable farming areas in desert regions and, specifically, to increase organic farming. However, the prevalence of organic farming is very low in developing countries. In this study, a multi-criteria decision-making process was used to determine land suitability for organic crops and to increase organic food production. This study attempted to identify suitable land for reliable organic farming in Rajasthan’s Barmer district. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique combined with the geographic information system approach showed that, in the Barmer district, the highly suitable area for organic farming comprises about 832 sq. km and the moderately suitable area covers about 8524 sq. km. Monthly Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and precipitation data were used to identify the impact of organic farming in the Barmer district for the period from January 2017 to December 2020. Finally, this study investigated the quality of land and its application so that it can be used effectively to solve social and economic problems.

Keywords: Thar desert; Barmer district; analytical hierarchy process (AHP); organic farming; gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4542/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4542/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:8:p:4542-:d:791213

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().