Identifying Indicators of Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture in Paddy Fields of Guilan Province

In recent years, agriculture has become the prime polluter ofnatural resources. it is therefore essential to make assessmentsbased on reliable indicators to ensure that an agricultural systemremains not only productive, but also ecologically sound. alarge area of arable land in guilan province is devoted to ricecultivation so the transition to environmentally sound agriculturalpractice in paddy fields of the province is an important strategy.the main purpose of this study was to present a new and comprehensiveframework for assessing environmentally sound agriculturalpractice applicable to the paddy fields in guilan province.a review of the relevant literature identified environmentallysound indicators that had been used by researchers in recentyears. then some parameters were introduced for examinationand prioritization. the proposed structural model includes sevenfactors and 21 indicators. the target population included universityfaculty members and researchers who were familiar with theconcepts of agricultural sustainability and that were familiarwith the guilan paddy fields. a structural on-line questionnairewas the main instrument used to gather information. based onexperts’ points of view, the coefficient of significance for eachof the selected indicators was measured using the yager fuzzyscreening method. the results obtained from structured questionnairesshowed that 20 of the 21 indicators were appropriatefor assessing environmentally sustainable agriculture.