Prioritization of Irrigation Areas Based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) at the Rokan Hulu Regency, Riau, Indonesia

The Riau Province, Indonesia has launched a Program of Food Self-Sufficiency (Operasi Pangan Riau Mandiri program) since 2013, which the main objective was to achieve self-sufficiency in the rice production. Under the local government budget constraints, only small numbers of the existing irrigated areas were able to be further developed. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was applied in assisting the local government of the Rokan Hulu regency in selecting and prioritizing which irrigated areas will be developed. This study identified five significant criteria for the development of irrigated area, such as: (i) institutional capacity building criteria (weight value = 45.6%), (ii) technical one (21.3%), (iii) economic (19.2%), (iv) social/culture (8.1%), and (v) environmental criteria (5.8%). The higher the weighted value of the criteria, the more important it will be. The priority irrigation areas in need to be developed were as the following order: (i) Kaiti Samo irrigation area (weight value = 56%), (ii) Menaming irrigation area (20%), (iii) Palis (14%), and (iv) Perak (10%). These criteria may fit the research objective in selecting the most important irrigated location to be developed