Effect of physiographic position on the suitability of land for Cotton production in some Agricultural projects within Iraqi Mesopotamians

Abstract

The objective of the study was identification the effect of the physiographic position on how suitable the land is for cotton cultivation within Mesopotamian, three Agricultural projects were selected and they are 7 Nessin, North kut and Al-Majar Al-Kabeer within Baghdad, Kut and Messin Provinces respectively, with consideration In the selection, the situation of all projects within Tigris river sediments ecology. Morphological and some soil physical and chemical properties for represented pedons of every secondary physiographic unit within the projects above were studied. The land agro-ecological characteristics which directly affect the land suitability for Barley cultivation were circumscribed, which included Eco-climatological characteristics, the evaluation of these characteristics was carried out by interconnection between parametric method and limitation method which was suggested by (20), according to the results the lands were classified according to their suitability for barely cultivation Results showed that the moderately suitable for climate in the three-studied project to cotton production, its reached 83.8% and %79.7 for 7 Nessin and North Kut& Al- Majar Al-Kabeer projects respectively, which means that climate was not the limit factor for the suitability of the studied regions for cotton cultivation. While the results about land properties evaluation showed that soil content from CaCO3 was the major limitation to cotton cultivation at studied projects, with presence the drainage class as limited factor within North Kut& Al- Majar Al-Kabeer projects, addition to soil salinity. The land suitability of the studied projects was distributed as class S3s (Marginally suitable land for cotton cultivation) %100 at 7 Nessin project, while its recorded %48.33 from total North Kut project area, decreased to 6.45% from Al- Majar Al-Kabeer project area. While the class N1 Unsuitable land for cotton cultivation because of the physical and chemical limitation was recorded 3.35% from total area for studied projects, with 14.66% at North Kut, while this class not recorded at 7 Nessin and Al-Majer Al-Kabeer projects. The class N2(Unsuitable land for cotton cultivation) was recorded a large percentage of %62.53 within all studied projects, which was presented increasing to North Kut and Al-Majer Al-Kabeer project, recorded 37.01% and 93.55% respectively. From a study we can understands priority 7 Nessin project and North Kut with limited degree to cotton cultivation, which was resistance to salinity in comparison to Al-Majer Al-Kabeer project, which showed unsuitability for cotton cultivation.