Agricultural Land Suitability Evaluation and Analysis

Crop land suitability analysis is a prerequisite to achieve optimum utilization of available land resource for sustainable agricultural production. The objectives of this study were to set up detailed information on the suitability of the land under consideration and to establish the map of land suitability for major crops using GIS techniques. The study was conducted at Fogera Plain, South Gonder, Ethiopia. A frame work for land evaluation FAO (1976) recommended an approach for land suitability evaluation for crops interms of suitability rating from highly suitable to not suitable based on climatic, terrain data and soil properties crop wise. Selection of the location of the soil sampling spots was based on free and grid survey techniques and their locations were taken on the field using Global Positioning System (GPS). Geographical information system (GIS) was used to develop crop land suitability map of the study area.