Land suitability analysis is a prerequisite for sustainable agricultural production. This study was aimed at evaluating the current physical land suitability for major cereal crops: teff, wheat, barley and maize in the Dabo-Hana district, Bunno Bedelle Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. A GIS and RS technique with a multicriteria evaluation approach was applied for evaluating the physical land suitability for the major crops. Various physical land attributes, namely temperature, rainfall, altitude, slope, soil (soil depth, PH, texture, and drainage), land use land cover, accessibility to market and proximity to road have been used as input parameters. Physical land suitability maps were generated for the major cereal crops. The optimum vector overlay analysis results revealed that from the total area, 15,298 ha (20.34%) and 12,494 ha (16.8%) is highly suitable and moderately suitable for all teff, wheat, barley, and maize crop production, respectively. The remaining area has a mixed suitability status (suitable for some crops and unsuitable for others) for all the analyzed crops. This study demonstrated that based on physical land suitability analysis the study area has huge potential for cereal crop production. Topographic factor (altitude) and climatic factors (temperature and rainfall) are the dominant factors that influence the suitability of agricultural land for the major crops in the ABOUT THE AUTHORS Gemechu Dabesa is a lecturer at Jimma University. He has M.Sc degree in GIS and RS from Jimma University.Sintayehu Legesse Gebre is an assistant professor in Hydrology and water resources engineering at Jimma University. He has a multidisciplinary academic and professional background. Currently, he is a Ph.D. fellow at KU Leuven University.Ashenif Meles and Sintayehu Teka are working at the department geography, Jimma University.Alemayehu Regassa (Ph.D.) is an associate professor at Jimma University. He is a senior researcher in the field of soil science. PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENTAgricultural land suitability analysis is important for effective and efficient utilization of land resources. This paper presents the physical land evaluation for selected cereal crops growing in Dabo Hana district, southwest Ethiopia. GIS and RS application techniques were applied to use the Multi-criteria decision support system. Different physical agricultural land attributes, namely temperature, rainfall, altitude, slope, soil (soil depth, PH, texture, and drainage), land use land cover, accessibility to market, and proximity to road have been used as input parameters. The result shows that about 37% of the study area is suitable for all the selected major cereal crops. Whereas the remaining area has mixed suitability like some areas are only suitable for either one or two or three types of crops. The finding of this study is useful for decision-makers to ensure optimized agricultural land-use planning to maximize cereal crop production to enhance food security in the community.
Drought is a water related climatic natural disaster affecting wide range of environmental, biological and social factors. Short, poor and delayed rainfall in 2015 caused critical water shortage, livestock causality and decline in milk production in the pastoral areas of Ethiopia. The relationship between rainfall and vegetation indices was analyzed to identify drought-vulnerable areas in Afar region of Ethiopia using 11 years time series of decadal NDVI, VCI, DSI and SPI using SPOT (2005-2013) and PROVA-V (2014-2015) data. For the validation of drought indices, correlation and regression analyses between NDVI and rainfall (r = 75%), NDVI and crop yield, and VCI and rainfall (r = 90%) were done. The findings showed that there was extreme drought in the Afar region in 2005, 2009, 2011 and 2015. The region was highly prone to drought, even though its severity levels varied in different years. Drought was severe, longer and intense in most of the areas in the region, adversely affecting agricultural productivity and livestock maintenance and management. Assessments of such natural disasters are useful to plan mitigative measures in advance for effective management programmes, including drought hazards.
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