Fuzzy logic approach in prioritization of crop growing parameters in protected farms: a case in North East India

Abstract

Global food demand is rising exponentially as the population is increasing.  Protected farming is becoming increasingly popular among the farming communities for fast growing vine crops round the year.  Consideration of crop growing parameters while designing and maintaining a protected farm is very important for optimal crop growth and profit.  Many farmers does not consider all the crop growing parameters and does not know the importance of all factors in the optimal crop growth.  In this paper, an attempt has been made to prioritize 12 crops growing parameters using fuzzy approach.  12 crop growing parameters were selected from the literature and scored by four different evaluation methods viz., food consumer importance, expert’s importance, farmer importance and food dealer importance.  The results revealed that the descending order of relative importance of the 12 crop factors are water quality, light intensity, nutrient availability, crop cultivar, substrate media, daylight length, moisture availability, crop spacing, temperature, air freshness, air circulation and relative humidity respectively.  Priority for crop growing factors must be considered while designing and maintaining a protected farm for optimal crop growth and net return.