GIS Based Land-Use Suitability Analysis for Selected Perennial Crops in Gumay Woreda of Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was aimed at identifying the current physical land suitability for selected perennial crops in Gumay woreda of Jimma zone, Southwest Ethiopia. Relevant land quality (LQ) and land characteristics (LCs) data like climate, topography and soil has been utilized for land suitability analysis. Consequently, through the querying analysis, the suitability rating process was run for individual LCs and based on the maximum limitation method. The overall suitability was assigned for specific land mapping units with the integration of ArcGIS10.3. Accordingly, the results showed that out of the 40976ha, 23% of the land was highly suitable (S1); 21% moderately suitable (S2); 47% marginally suitable and only 9% of the land was not appropriate (N) for guava production. Similarly, 47% of the land was highly suitable, 27% moderately suitable, 6% marginally suitable and 20% was not appropriate for mango growing. On the other hand, only 1% of the area was highly suitable, 6% was marginally suitable and the remaining 93% of the land were not suitable for growing avocado. Overall, more of the twenty LMUs fall under highly, moderately and marginally suitable class for guava and mango production and the reverse is true for avocado; 93% was not suitable and based on the individual LCs, slope status (which is not assigned as S1) was found to be the most severe limiting factor. So, based on the analysis, guava and mango cultivation is better suited in the area whereas cultivation of avocado is not, because it needs more treatments.