Land suitability assessment for optimal cropping sequences in Katihar district of Bihar, India using GIS and AHP
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Land suitability assessment for optimal cropping sequences in Katihar district of Bihar, India using GIS and AHP Vinay Prasad Mandal1 • Sufia Rehman1 • Raihan Ahmed1 • Md. Masroor1 Pavan Kumar1 • Haroon Sajjad1
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Received: 25 September 2019 / Revised: 3 January 2020 / Accepted: 7 January 2020 Korean Spatial Information Society 2020
Abstract The main objective of the study is to assess land suitability for suggesting suitable crop sequences in Katihar district of Bihar, India. We first selected site-specific factors and assigned their weights using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for land suitability assessment. The layers of factors were integrated to prepare land suitability map. The findings revealed that of the total area (3.05 million ha), the largest area (48.5%) was marginally suitable for agriculture followed by moderately suitable (30.8%) and highly suitable (2.9%). Nearly 17.8% area was found unsuitable for agriculture. Rice–maize– rice, rice–maize–jute and maize–maize–rice were found suitable crop sequences in all suitability classes. Multilinear regression analysis between land suitability and factors shows that soil texture, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, pH and drainage proximity influenced land suitability. The study suggested soil reclamation, application of adequate amount of fertilizers, assured irrigation and flood control for sustainable crop sequences in the study area. & Haroon Sajjad [email protected] Vinay Prasad Mandal [email protected] Sufia Rehman [email protected] Raihan Ahmed [email protected] Md. Masroor [email protected] Pavan Kumar [email protected] 1
Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
Land restoration and soil reclamation measures should be taken to transform unsuitable areas for crop cultivation. Use of integrated geographical information system and AHP approach for analyzing land suitability and crop sequences may add a new dimension in spatial information science. Keywords Land suitability Crop sequences Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) Site specific factors Katihar
1 Introduction Agriculture provides livelihood to nearly 70% of the rural population in India and accounts for 23% of gross domestic product [1]. India became self-sufficient in food production with the introduction of modern technology in early 1960s [2]. Since then it is supplying the food grains in the market at lower prices. The increasing rate of import and export of agricultural commodities has, thus, helped increase in the gross domestic product of the economy [3]. However, at the same time exponential increase in population, urbanization, land degradation, over irrigation, over doses of chemical fertilizers and climate change are some of the challenges that threaten the long-term sustainability of agricultural systems in the country. Hence, achieving agricultural sustainability with judicious utilization of the resources is a big challenge in India. Therefore, it is imperative to analyze land suitability and
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