Zoning Agroclimatic Chickpea in the GIS Environment Case Study: Ardebil Province

  Pea plants are grown in hot and arid and semi arid weather conditions in cold areas in spring and autumn in the tropics. Iran is the fourth largest producer of peas in the world after India, Turkey and Pakistan. Despite the high-yielding cultivars development, weather is one of the most important determinants of the plant's performance. In this study, with the use of meteorological data, physiographic regions favorable for the cultivation of pea in Ardabil are identified. Collecting of data in this study is as follows. 1- Collecting climatic elements such as temperature and precipitation in the Province Ardabil during the period 1988 to 2013. 2- The preparation of topographic map with a scale of 1: 50,000 of the Armed Forces Geographical Organization. 3- Preparation maps of slope, elevation 4- Preparing soil maps and land use 5- Preparation of physiographic and climatic zonation map of pea cultivation of combining all data using AHP. In this study, each of the data after a review of the valuation methods were studied in GIS environment and the combination of the following options, criteria and sub-criteria, the final map was prepared. Precipitation play an important role in maintaining moisture and water requirement of pea. In this study, the amount of precipitation was used in the weather stations in April, May, June and July. Temperature is one of the decisive factors in the geography of plants and garden areas. Climatic factors such as: the distribution of the amount of rainfall during the growing of peas, average minimum temperature, germination, flowering temperature, temperature and relative humidity during their growth and climate elements by analyzing the data was about 37 percent very suitable, 21 percent suitable, 20 percent average and 22 percent was unsuitable for the cultivation of peas. Physiographic data played a significant role and is a limiting factor during the growing season of pea. The results of physiographic maps show that about 55 percent very suitable, 25 percent fair and 20 percent is unsuitable for cultivation of pea.
The aim of this study was to investigate the role of physiographic and climatic elements in the cultivation of pea, each of them prepared in different forms and was weighted, and results of zoning pea cultivation in this Province are as follows.
1. The areas are very suitable for cultivation of peas, plain and south of the cities of Ardabil is Meshkinshahr that is consistent with agricultural areas and there are no limitations for pea and constitute about 18 percent of Ardabil Province.
2. The regions in terms of Pea has the perfect conditions surrounding cities of Khalkhal and Sareyn, Kowsar and central areas of the city, Nir, northeast and constitute Meshkinshahr cities. A major constraint in the areas of water requirements and minimum temperature that is about 45 percent of the total area of the province.
3-Areas that slope, soil depth, elevation, temperature fluctuations are considered a major factor in limiting Pea-are the northern and southern areas and around the city Meshkinshahr form and about 27 percent of the total area of the province.
4-The areas of the Ardabil province due to the mountainous area, cold air and a lack of proper soil horizon with severe limitation is facing the possibility of planting about 12 percent of the Province Ardabil. In addition to the fact that peas are cultivated as human and animal food, the cultivation of this plant should be included in the crop pattern due to the contribution of soil fertility as one of the components of sustainable agricultural systems.
The final results show that:1- Among the main criteria, 0.603 climate, topography, 0.245, 0.114 soil and land use 0.038 higher priority on locating the pea are grown.
2-The results show consistency index criteria, all criteria are used with consistency index less than 0.1