The application of the MCDM paradigm to the management of agricultural systems: Some basic considerations

Abstract Since the early seventies some path-breaking research, mainly in management science, has extended and developed the frontiers of mathematical programming and other similar approaches to a new paradigm for dealing with multiple-criteria in decision-making. The applications of such techniques and methods have not been particularly common in relation to agricultural systems, even though some significant theoretical and methodological contributions have emerged from the analysis of watershed management and forestry resource-use problems. This paper provides a ‘state-of-the-art’ review of the general nature of the main multiple criteria decision making methods and emphasises the theoretical and practical aspects of their use rather than the specific technicalities of individual techniques. The main purpose of this exercise is to encourage the use of multiple criteria decision making methodologies in the analysis of agricultural systems.