Coffee Cultivation Suitability Analysis Using Gis And Remote Sensing Techniques In Kersa District, Jimma Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Land suitability analysis is needed to preserve the quality of land for future generations and to achieve optimum utilization of suitable land resources for sustainable agricultural production. Th e aim of this study is to identify land suitability areas for coffee cultivation using GIS and remote sensing techniques in Kersa district. It covers a total area of the district of about 97,061ha. For this purpose, the study has used four criteria, and fifteen factors selected from climatic, topographic, soil, land use, land cover, and accessibility were considered for coffee cultivation suitability analysis.For the suitability analysis of coffee cultivation, four and fifteen suitability criteria factors were considered, respectively. Soil data were downloaded from /h armonized-world-soil websites (pH, texture, depth, type, and drainage; climate data were do wnloaded from (rainfall, temperature, and humidity); and topographic data were obtained from Aster SRTM/DEM (aspect, slope, and elevation); accessibility factors were obtained from ethiogis-mapserver.org. (Road, water, and market); and land use and land cover. All of these da ta were stored in an ArcGIS environment, and the factor map was generated for land suitability for coffee cultivation. The study used a multi-criteria evaluation approach by applying a pairwise comparison matrix and weighted overlay analysis (WOA) to classify the study area into five coffee cultivation-suitable classes. The results showed that 60.1% of the study area was analyzed as highly suitable (S1), 37.8% of the study area was determined to be moderately suitable (S2), and 2.1% of the study area was determined to be lowly suitable for coffee cultivation. Hence, the suitability analysis that more land is available that is suitable for coffee cultivation. This means that 97% of the study area highly suitable for coffee cultivation land, while the remaining 3% of the total area is low suitable for coffee cultivation.The findings of this study will be useful for decision-making, planning, and policy-making, to support coffee farmers, investors, and local governments, to invest in those suitable areas for coffee cultivation to maximize agricultural productivity, and for further studies.