Assessing Irrigation Potential With Gis In Kersa District, Oromia, Ethiopia

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.