Estimating Agricultural Sustainability of Sholgara District Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process

Abstract

This research aims to evaluate the sustainability of standard agricultural systems in 5 important villages of the Sholgara district of Balkh province of Afghanistan. To evaluate the sustainability of agriculture in each village, three main environmental, economic, and social criteria were determined, and each criterion is composed of several sub-criteria; in total, 18 sub-criteria were considered. data was collected in the form of a questionnaire from farmers and experts. To complete the questionnaire, farmers were selected by stratified random sampling, and 110 questionnaires were conducted from the villages of the Sholgara district. The data needed for this evaluation for standardization in the agricultural sustainability model, for weighting the criteria and sub-criteria of agricultural sustainability, a questionnaire was designed by experts and using the opinions of experts in agricultural economics, promotion and education of agriculture and agriculture, the ranking of sustainability criteria and sub-criteria was done. Moreover, by using Analytical Hierarchy Process, the agricultural sustainability status of the villages of the Sholgara district was calculated.

The results of the economic, social, and environmental sustainability analysis of Khowja Askandar were selected as the most sustainable village with a weight of 0.237. The villages of Boyni Qara, Aghar Saye, Bauragai, and Qurbaqqa Khana, with weights of 0.199, 0.197, 0.195, and 0.173, respectively are in the priorities of sustainability. Based on the sustainability sensitivity analysis, increasing the weight of the social and environmental components of sustainability to the level of 0.38 and 0.33 will increase the level of sustainability of Aghar Saye village, and increasing the weight of the economic part of sustainability did not change the priorities.

The results of this research make it possible to know the importance of various parameters affecting sustainability, to evaluate the sustainability, and to compare the villages of the Sholgara district with good accuracy so that practical steps can be taken in applying appropriate policies to improve the sustainability of agriculture.