The evaluation of performance for agroecological greenhouse tomato strategies by the CRITIC-OWA model.

Abstract

Introduction: Modern agriculture must begin to use production strategies that are increasingly sustainable. To help in decision-making, the present work analyzes the sustainability of greenhouse tomato production with different agroecological strategies: shading (conventional fixed mesh and mobile photovoltaic shading), grafting and deficit irrigation, based on economic, social, and environmental criteria.

Methods: For the ranking of the different strategies, the use of an extension of the CRiteria Importance Through Inter-criteria Correlation (CRITIC) is proposed, in which the correlation between the criteria is obtained through the Pearson-OWA, where the aggregation of the quadratic differences between criteria is carried out considering the attitudinal character of the decision-maker, that is, using Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA), in addition to induced variables, with the Induced Probabilistic OWA CRITIC (IPOWA CRITIC). Three extensions are considered based on this model depending on the way the multicriteria score is calculated: i) the ranking is carried out on the relative score (S) of each alternative (IPOWA-S-CRITIC), ii) on the weighting vector (W) (IPOWA-W-CRITIC), or iii) on both (IPOWA-S-W-CRITIC).

Results: The results of the classifications conducted indicate that the use of mobile photovoltaic mesh is a sustainable production strategy, due to its effect on production and quality of the crop, CO2 fixation, and irrigation water savings.

Discussion: The use of mobile photovoltaic shades is compatible with tomato cultivation in a greenhouse if the management of the installation is performed considering the needs of the plants in most of the rankings.