Developing smart sustainable irrigation matrix (SIM)-based model for selection of best irrigation techniques: A framework to achieve SDGs

Adopting sustainable agriculture practices using multi-criteria evaluation methods couldn't adequately describe the correlation between the irrigation techniques and most of the environmental and techno-economic factors. Hence, this study developed a novel sustainable irrigation matrix (SIM)-related model to evaluate four irrigation scenarios (a combination of furrow and drip techniques and chemical and nanomaterial fertilizers) in tomato cultivation to fulfill the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their targets. The SIM model included main criteria (three sustainability pillars), and sub-criteria, i.e., irrigation water and nitrogen use efficiency, nitrate leaching, N2O emission, energy input, crop yield, net return, hired farmworkers, education level, and percentage of irrigated area. Data collection included a pot-scale experiment, literature studies, and questionnaires. Results demonstrated that drip/nano-fertilization (DN) was the best irrigation technique, and it was highly influenced by the economic and environmental dimensions, followed by the social pillar of sustainability. Moreover, DN achieved the highest scores on all SDGs except for SDG5 gender equality and SDG16 peace, justice and participation. These findings were verified by employing sensitivity analysis and an AHP-TOPSIS model, revealing the sustainability of DN irrigation. The study concluded that the proposed SIM-based model could be employed to ensure the sustainable performance of crop irrigation treatments worldwide.

Automated summary

This study developed a novel sustainable irrigation matrix (SIM) model to evaluate four irrigation scenarios in tomato cultivation in order to achieve sustainable development goals. The results showed that drip/nano-fertilization (DN) was the best irrigation technique, with high scores on most of the sustainable development goals. Sensitivity analysis and an AHP-TOPSIS model verified the sustainability of DN irrigation. The study concluded that the proposed SIM-based model could ensure the sustainable performance of crop irrigation treatments worldwide.