Abstract
This study assessed the physical land suitability for cassava cultivation in southern part of Adamawa State using Multi-criteria evaluation and GIS technique. Within the study area, the production of cassava is mainly for food and there are only little opportunities for its commercial development. Therefore it is necessary to carry out land suitability analysis in order to provide information on the study area that would guide in sustaining long term production of cassava on commercial basis. The environmental variables examined were Mean Annual rainfall, Mean Temperature, Length of rainfall, Relief and Soil. The primary data were sourced by means of field survey to obtain the coordinates of the current cassava growing areas for mapping. The five factor maps were reclassified based on environmental requirement of cassava crop in the IDRISI Taiga environment and different weights were assigned to each factor to represent their relative importance using the pair-wise comparison matrix. The result, which is explicitly revealed on a single map, indicates that the areas that are suitable for cassava cultivation constitutes 65.92% while those that are not suitable amounts to 34.08%. Similarly, the current cassava growing areas were mapped and the areas identified are Dissol, Mbulo, Maitani, Farang, Timdore and Wadore which fell within the suitable category. The study therefore recommends that cassava production should be encouraged among farmers so as to utilize the proportion of land area found to be suitable for cassava production in Southern Adamawa State. Keywords: Land suitability, Cassava cultivation, Multi-criteria evaluation, Pair-wise Comparison Matrix, IDRISITaiga
Highlights
Crop-land suitability analysis is a prerequisite to achieving optimum utilization of the available land resources for sustainable agricultural production
This situation is highly pronounced in urban areas due to high population density with agricultural land being frequently in short supply compare to more mouths to be fed
3.1 Land Suitability for Cassava Cultivation in the Study Area To assess whether or not the five variables are suitable for cassava cultivation, the land suitability order by FAO (1993) was adopted which indicates in a simplest form whether land is suitable (S) or not suitable (NS) for the specified use
Summary
Crop-land suitability analysis is a prerequisite to achieving optimum utilization of the available land resources for sustainable agricultural production. These factors include relief, soil, annual sustaining long term production of cassava in rainfall, length of rainy days and temperature of the southern part of Adamawa State. The secondary data, which were basically provide a decision making guide for the current concerned with the five factor maps were generated and potential farmers of cassava within the from data obtained from the Upper Benue River study area using GIS.
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