For the overall development of medicinal plants cultivation in Iran, there is a need to identify various effective factors on medicinal plant cultivation. A proper method for identifying the most effective factor on the development of the medicinal plants cultivation is essential. This research conducted in order to prioritizing of the effective criteria for the development of medicinal plant cultivation in North Khorasan province in Iran using Analytical Network Process (ANP) method. The multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) is suggested to be a viable method for factor selection and the analytic network process (ANP) has been used as a tool for MCDM. For this purpose a list of effective factors offered to expert group. Then pair wise comparison questionnaires were distributed between relevant researchers and local producer experts of province to get their opinions about the priority of criteria and sub-criteria. The questionnaires were analyzed using Super Decision software. We illustrated the use of the ANP by ranking main effective factors such as economic, educational-extension services, cultural-social and supportive policies on development of medicinal plants. The main objective of the present study was to develop ANP as a decision making tool for prioritizing factors affecting the development of medicinal plants cultivation. Resul ts showed that the ANP methodology was perfectly suited to tackling the complex interrelations involved in selection factor in this case. Also the results of the process reveal ed that among the factors, supporting the cultivation of medicinal plants, build the infrastructure for marketing support, having educated farmer and easy access to production input have most impact on the development of medicinal plant cultivation.

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