Ali Bagherzadeh - Department of Agriculture, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran
Alireza Anvarkhah - Faculty of Agriculture, Shirvan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shirvan, Iran
Maryam Tatari - Faculty of Agriculture, Shirvan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shirvan, Iran.
Majid Rahimizadeh - Department of Agriculture, Bojnord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bojnourd, Iran

Background and objective: Due to the constant decline in arable land, it is essential to identify the best areas for sustainable agriculture. Materials and Methods: In the present study, the factor analysis (FA) by principal component analysis (PCA) method as multivariate statistical was applied to evaluate the Land suitability zonation of ۳۶۷۰۰ points for Ferula plantation in North Khorasan Province, NE Iran. For this purpose, extracted ۱۶ variables were processed, resulting in four factors that explain about ۹۰ % of the total variance.Results and conclusion: The explained variances of these factors varied from ۲۵.۵۱۹ to ۹.۰۷۸ % for factors ۱ and ۴ after the Varimax rotation, respectively. The zonation map of land suitability revealed that ۲۷.۰۲% (۶۸۸۵/۹۳ km۲) of the surface area was moderately suitable, ۶۷/۲۰% (۱۷۱۲۵/۳۶ km۲) was marginally applicable and ۵.۷۸% (۱۴۷۴.۵۲ km۲) of the region was unsuitable for Ferula production. The moderate suitability class of S۲ was mainly distributed within the middle, and northeastern parts of the province, while the southern part of the study area and some scattered parts within the northwest exhibited unsuitability for Ferula production.

Ferula, GIS, Hybrid method, Land evaluation, PCA