Abstract: Identification of suitable land for Maize crop in Okara District by using Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques was the primary goal of this study. Maize crop grow in all provinces of Pakistan especially in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwah (KPK). This crop gets importance as a commercial/industrial crop because a large number of products such as; starch, protein, oil, fiber, and sugar are produced from its grains. Beside its tremendous demand/requirement in Pakistan, this crop has to face a lot of threats to grow which include; soil erosion, land degradation, water shortage, environmental / meteorological problems, and soil fertility. Moreover, due to rapid increase in urbanization, availability of fertile land is decreasing and a land for certain crops must be determined in order to achieve higher productivity. This research focused to find suitable sites for Maize crop in Okara district of Punjab province – covered an area of 4,378 km2. The main goals of this research to establish a spatial model for land evaluation by applying Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and then merged it with GIS techniques. The parameters used for land suitability analysis were soil pH, EC, soil texture, organic matter and ground water quality. On the basis of these parameters suitability maps were generated. Land suitability analyses performed by using the AHP method through assigning different weights to all parameters. Different Hierarchies placed under test through hit and trial method but preferred the hierarchy which précised and near to the real environment referred by SSOP. In this model all required parameters work together and according to their suitability ratios, highly, moderately, marginally and not suitable areas were identified for this specific crop. From this study highly suitable area was accurately identified through AHP model under certain limitations. A strong correlation was found between the ground sampled results by SSOP and suitable site which was identified through GIS. The result of this study shows that approximately 74% area of the Okara District was identified through AHP, is highly correlated with Punjab Soil Survey Report (2005). This study evaluates that it is an easy approach to get suitable land which improve Maize crop production by using AHP method. It is highly useful for decision makers including farmers, resolve land degradation problems and full fill the requirements of food for population which increase drastically.
Keywords: Land Suitability Assessment, Agriculture, Soil, GIS.
Title: LAND SUITABILITY ASSESSMENT FOR MAIZE CROP IN OKARA DISTRICT USING GIS TECHNIQUES
Author: Amira Baber Sheikh, Shahid Parvez, Muhammad Ikram, Humaira Baber
International Journal of Life Sciences Research
ISSN 2348-313X (Print), ISSN 2348-3148 (online)
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