Prioritization of absent quarantine pests in Brazil through the Analytical Hierarchy Process

Abstract

Introducing an Absent Quarantine Pest (AQP) can cause severe economic, social and environmental impacts, generating food insecurity. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is an excellent tool for prioritizing APQs, allowing countries to better prepare against these threats. This study aimed to determine which AQPs should be prioritized in Brazil. For this, 20 AQPs were selected from the Brazilian official list. The selection was based on pests intercepted by Brazil between 2015 and 2018 and by countries of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization, in the international movement of plants. It can be concluded that out of the 20 AQPs studied, 17 are the priority and that the AHP method is effective for this purpose. Other countries from different continents can use this methodology to prioritize PQAs and thus create strategic plans to prevent entry into their territories and economic, social, and environmental impacts.

Using Analytic Hierarchy Process to Assess Beekeeping Suitability in Portuguese Controlled Areas: A First Approach

“…AHP can be used for several purposes, such as for application in the selection of plant types on the community agroforestry land [29], for the selection of agricultural irrigation systems [30], and for the prioritization of absent quarantine pests [31], among many other applications. For beekeeping analysis, the most used MCDA techniques are the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), the Technique of Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE), and the fuzzy logic approach.…”