Bikram Bhattaa* (1), Kabita Subedi (2) , Chandeshwar Prasad Shriwastava (2), Babu Ram Khanala (2), Santosh Marahattaa (2)
(1). Faculty of Agriculture, Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan 44209, Nepal.
(2). Department of Agriculture, Hariharbhawan, Lalitpur 44700, Nepal.
(*Corresponding author: Bikram Bhattaa, E-mail: agriculturistbhatta@gmail.com).
Received: 17/10/2022 Accepted: 27/02/2023
Abstract:
A field survey was conducted in former Shardanagar Village Development Committee (VDC), Nepal from November 2018 to June 2019 with the purpose to set the soil fertility map and to assess the land suitability for Cole crops cultivation using the integrating geographical information systems (GIS) and multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) via analytical hierarchy process (AHP). To achieve the study goals, grid soil sampling method was used where, 70 individual soil samples were collected by using bucket auger from nine wards of Shardanagar VDC and analyzed for the soil fertility mapping. Existing geo-database from national land use project (NLUP) was used for the suitability evaluation of Cole crops with the aid of GIS and MCE. The (FAO) framework of land suitability (1976) was used for suitability classification. The terrain of the studied area have been characterized in terms of soil drainage, soil depth, organic matter, texture, pH, total nitrogen, available phosphorous, and available potassium. Fertility maps were generated by using the inverse distance weight (IDW) interpolation technique. The interpolated results of soil fertility mapping showed that 69.08% of studied land is medium in soil organic matter content and 60.77% are slightly acidic. The areas (87.24% and 84.24%) of research field were medium in nitrogen and potassium content respectively, whereas 59.80 % of areas are high in available phosphorous content. The suitability analysis of Cole crops results showed that 22% of lands are highly suitable and 5.44% of area is moderately suitable that means the more potentiality of Cole crops cultivation in the former Shardanagar VDC area. Therefore, the integration of GIS and MCE using AHP could provide a superior database and guide map for decision- makers to set alternative plans crop cultivation to obtain better agricultural production.
Key words: Geographical information System; Land suitability analysis; Multi-criteria evaluation; Soil Fertility mapping.
Full paper in English: pdf