Waste Reduction Strategies of Date in Rural Areas of Khuzestan Province from the Perspective of Palm Cooperatives Experts

This study utilized a hierarchical process to prioritize criteria and strategies for the waste reduction of dates. For this purpose, first, according to the identified criteria and options, data were collected from 18 persons Aware of waste management issues (palm cooperative experts) based on paired comparison questionnaires. Data analysis was done by Expert Choice software. The results of the pairwise comparisons showed that the most important criterion for evaluating waste reduction strategies is economic benchmark, and after that, it is environmental, social and institutional criterion, respectively. In addition, the results of comparison of options according to all criteria showed that the most important waste reduction strategies in Khuzestan province were: marketing, development of conversion and processing industries, stakeholders’ training, improved packaging quality, reduced transaction costs, utilization of guaranteed price, increased exports and abolition of cultivation.