PHYSIO-CHEMICAL LAND SUITABILITY ANALYSIS FOR MAJOR CROPS PRODUCTION USING GEOSPATIAL TECHNIQUES: THE CASE OF SILE WATERSHED, GAMO ZONE, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Land suitability analysis is a prerequisite for sustainable agricultural production. This study aimed to evaluate the current physical land suitability for major crops: maize, banana, teff, and barley in Sile Watershed, Southern Ethiopia. A GIS-based multi-criteria evaluation approach was applied to evaluate the physical land suitability for the major crops. Various physical land attributes have been used as input parameters, namely temperature, rainfall, altitude, slope, and soil (salinity, texture, pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic carbon). The optimum overlay analysis results revealed that from the total area, 51.7%, 20.6%, and 21.4% of the land was found to be highly suitable, moderately suitable, and marginally suitable for maize; 41.7%, 11.9%, and 18.8% of land was found to be highly, moderately, and marginally suitable for banana; 42.2%, 26.1%, and 15.4% of land was found to be highly, moderately, and marginally suitable for teff; 35.4%, 40.1%, and 20.1% of the land was found to be highly, moderately, and marginally suitable for barley production, respectively. However, 6.3 %, 27.6%, 16.3%, and 4.4% of the study area was classified as not suitable for maize, banana, teff, and barley production, respectively. This study demonstrated that the study area has huge potential for major crop production based on physical land suitability analysis. Topographic factors (altitude) and climatic factors (temperature and rainfall) are the dominant factors that influence the suitability of agricultural land for the major crops in the study area. This study report urges the concerned stakeholders to properly use and adopt the optimum physical land suitability planning to expend the present land resources for more crop productivity in a sustainable manner in the region