Climatic suitability evaluation for Some Horticultural crops, a Case Study: Makou-Shout County, West Azerbaijan

Climate has an important role in agricultural activities and can be examined from two perspectives. First, what locations are suitable for a specific plant, and second, what plants are suitable for a climate. The latter approach is less considered; thus in this study, it has been investigated by introducing a standard method (Sys method). The study area is located in Mako city. Climatic suitability evaluation was performed by numerical (parametric) method using the Maku Synoptic Station data for pistachio, almond, pears, plum, sour cherry and sweet cherry. The findings showed that except for pistachio, with marginally suitable class (S3), other plants were classified as moderately suitable class (S2) but the value of climatic index for each crop was different. The introduced method made it possible to identify the most important effective climatic factors for the cultivation of each plant and determine the most limiting factor in the phenological period. Such findings showed that there is a close relationship between crops, phenological period, climatic characteristic and location. Based on this, the most suitable plant or plant species can be selected for a region, using the phenological period of the plant and climatic characteristics. However, for sustainable development, other components of the land, such as soil and/or topography, should also be evaluated. In general, the introduced approach can be used as an efficient tool, both for choosing the most suitable plants in a climate and for choosing the most suitable place (in terms of climate) for specific plants.