Land Capability, Irrigation Potential and Crop Suitability: Analysis and Evaluation of Agricultural Parameters Using Geographic Information Science and Remote Sensing

Land Capability, Irrigation potential and Land suitability analysis is a prerequisite for sustainable agricultural production in the country. Land suitability is the ability of a given type of land to support a defined use while Land capability is the ability of a given natural land to perform as it is. For example the capability of the land may be to be forest area but the land may be suitable for annual crops. Land Capability (Classification), Land suitability analysis for specific crops and suitability analysis for surface irrigation evaluate parameters like slope, soil depth, past erosion, water logging, infiltration, soil texture, soil drainage, land use, soil type, temperature, rainfall and stoniness of the study area. GIS and remote sensing are a tool to evaluate the above parameters by focusing on spatial analysis, characterization and modeling of these geographic and non-geographic parameters. Multicriteria decision-making techniques like ranking, rating etc. are employed for the analysis that includes pair wise combination and weighted linear combination to make the study more realistic.