PHYSICAL LAND SUITABILITY ANALYSIS FOR SELECTED MAJOR CEREAL CROPS IN MANSA WATERSHED, DAWURO ZONE, SOUTHWESTERN ETHIOPIA PEOPLES’ REGIONAL STATE

Abstract

The aim this study was analyzing physical land suitability for selected major cereal crops in Mansa watershed southwest Ethiopia Peoples’ Region. Climatic, digital elevation model, Sentinel 2A satellite image, and soil data were used as input data sets to generate factors for physical land suitability analysis. The Analytical Hierarchy Process was used to evaluate each parameter for pairwise comparison and weighted overlay tool of geographic information system software was used to generate the suitability for teff, wheat, and maize crops. Additionally, a vector overlay was used for suitable land allocation for each of crops. Physical land suitability was generated from 10 factors such as: Soil pH, soil depth, soil texture, soil drainage, soil organic matter, slope, altitude, rain fall, temperature and land use land cover change were used as criteria. The result showed that about 303.62 km2 (29.65%), 626.78 km2 (61.18%, and 512.7 km2 (50.06%) of the study area were moderately suitable for the production of maize, teff and wheat, respectively. Likewise 540.78 km2 (52.81%), 397.52 km2 (38.82%) and 142.39 km2 (13.9%) of the study area are marginally suitable for maize, teff and wheat production, whereas 179.72 km2 (17.55%) and 368.99 km2 (36.03%) of the study area were not suitable for maize and wheat crop production. The result of physical land suitability allocation showed that about 442.1 km2 (44.2%) and 110.2 km2 (10.1%) of the land in the study area were moderately suitable and marginally suitable for all specified crops. whereas about 27.9 km2 (2.7%) of land are moderately suitable for wheat and teff production, but only marginally suitable for maize crops. Similarly, 1.53 km2 (0.15%) of lands were marginally suitable for maize and teff production but moderately suitable for wheat crops. Sustainable land management interventions are needed to improve soil properties to enhance land suitably. To increase the choice for the decision makers as well as for the stake holders, further analysis for different land utilization types is necessary.