Abstract:
Assessing available land and water resources for irrigation is very important for planning their
use. Ethiopia has immense irrigation potential and available water resources. But due to a lack
of information related to cultivable land and the irrigation suitability of the land, its agricultural
system is not yet fully productive. A geographic information system can be an effective tool for
identifying suitable irrigable land. Therefore, the objective of the study is to assess the surface
irrigation potential of the Kersa district of Jimma Zone for surface irrigation development using
Geographic Information System. To identify potentially irrigable land, irrigation suitability
factors such as assessing slope, soil depth, soil drainage, soil type, land use/land cover,
proximity to the road, proximity to the river, proximity to a market, temperature, rainfall, and
aspect taken into account. By weighting the values of the factors using the Analytic Hierarchy
Process (AHP) and overlaying with a weighted overlay in ArcGIS 10.3, the irrigation suitability
map was developed. The weighted overlay map of the study area reveales that, the district has
irrigation potential,with 99.87% of the total area from highly suitable to marginally suitable for
surface irrigation. The remaining 0.13% total area was not suitable for surface irrigation. Thus,
while small areas of land in Kersa district were unsuitable for surface irrigation, 99.87% of the
area is highly, moderately, or marginally suitable for surface irrigation. Thus, farmers could
invest in those suitable areas for surface irrigation.
