The PROMETHEE-GAIA: A multi-criteria decision-making method for identifying best conservation agricultural practices

In a first, we used Preference Ranking Organization Method and Geometrical Analysis for Interactive Aid (PROMETHEE-GAIA) tool in agricultural research for identifying the best management decision with weakening factors for cultivation of mustard following rice under fifteen regimes of conservation agriculture (CA) practices, because of its versatility, simplicity and usefulness. We created the regime of CA practices based on energy spent for raising the crop combining different tillage practices viz., reduced tillage and zero tillage, and quantity of crop residues and fertilizer application. The performance of the CA regimes was evaluated over the conventional ones using conflicting criteria (31) related to soil, agronomy, plant protection, energy use and economics. With the PROMETHEE-II method, we found zero tillage with 100 % residue plus 75 % NPK (ZERO₃) as the best performing alternative, while GAIA analysis identified ZERO₃ and zero tillage with 50 % residue plus 100 % NPK (ZERO₄). On integration, PROMETHEE-GAIA helped the decision makers to segregate the effects of the criteria on the outcome creating a scope for maneuvering the weak links for optimizing the performance of mustard crop under different CA-regimes. The tool has a huge potential for use in multi-factorial agricultural research.