Developing strategies for reducing pollution and emissions at farm level

Production process including agricultural production plays a significant role for some pollutants like Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O), leading to the necessity of supplying safe drinking water in rural areas due to pollutants leakage to water resources. Thus, in addition to the policies at the agricultural sector level, other measures should be taken at the farm level. In this context, the current study aims to develop strategies in order to mitigate pollutants emissions emitted from agricultural activities. The possible strategies to dampen the pollutants emissions at farm level were developed based on the current literature and the survey implemented throughout the selected experts in Fars province. The survey was conducted to provide information to rank the strategies. The strategies were ranked using FAHP and TOPSIS techniques. Based on the results, for both agronomy and horticultural, and husbandry activities, effectiveness and cost were ranked more important, assigning three-fourth of the total weight. The results obtained for strategies ranking revealed that for activities in agronomy and horticultural subsector, the prioritized strategies are agricultural machinery and equipment management, plant residue management and managerial activities in general at the farm level. For the husbandry activities, manure scraping method and the animal housing management were ranked with higher importance followed by alteration in animal feed diet.