Abstract
Cereal crops like wheat and maize are crucial to providing food security in rural areas of Ethiopia. However, due to population growth, agricultural practices for these cereal crops have been expanded to vulnerable areas, and increasing land degradation. Geospatial technologies are essential for decision-making to reduce land degradation and ensure sustainable agriculture activities. In the Guder sub-watershed, Oromia regional state of Ethiopia, where land degradation has been a persistent issue, agricultural suitability study is crucial. This study is focused on the Guder sub-watershed, which aimed to analyze the land suitability based on ten controlling parameters, including elevation, slope, soil texture, soil depth, soil PH, soil drainage, proximity to the road, temperature, rainfall and land use/land cover, for the two most significant cereal crops (wheat and maize). All of these factors were weighted in accordance with the relative importance of each component for the appropriateness of wheat and maize land suitability using MCDA and AHP method, based on the recommendations of numerous writers and expert opinions. The findings of the study showed that 6 %, 50.58 %, 23.26 %, and 20.26 % of the total study area were highly, moderately, marginally and not suitable for wheat cultivation, respectively, whereas 5.1 %, 57.3 %, 17.3 %, and 20.3 % of the study area were highly, moderately, marginally and not suitable for cultivating maize crop respectively. This result support decision makers to develop land use planning thereby improve productivity and minimize land degradation.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.