Efficient land‐use management could be optimized through appropriate advice regarding land suitability and achieving a reasonable yield while preserving soil and environmental conditions. The main objective of this study was to determine and define those locations capable of wheat cultivation with irrigation in the municipality of N’goussa (Southern Algeria). Expert opinion (EO) method was used for selecting minimum soil data set (MDS‐EO), where six influencing soil properties (sand, pH, salinity, organic matter, gypsum and lime) and other three key parameters (slope, land use/land cover, and proximity to roads and electricity network) were considered important for irrigated wheat cultivation in the study area. Indicators were weighted according to principal component analysis (PCA) loadings and summed. PCA revealed that the selected nine indicators are appropriate for accounting 73.63% of the total variance. Two maps of land suitability were created here (expressed as a soil quality index within a range from 0 to 1) from multivariate analysis and already known standard scoring functions (SSFs) by using two data sets (pure and scored). The distribution of soil quality index (IQI) showed that above 70% of the land was moderately (MS) to highly suitable (HS) for irrigated wheat. The estimation accuracy of soil quality classes has been evaluated using random forests (RF), having as a dependent variable the final class of land suitability used in each map. It was determined that estimation accuracy could reach 60% (pure data set) and 65% (scored data set) at 0.5 cut‐off value for soil quality classes. Final prioritizing according to ranks of sensitivity index (SI) and efficiency ratio (ER) showed that IQI obtained from scored data set is the most suitable approach in soil quality assessment of arid areas. Therefore, it could be applied in southern Algeria for land management, integrated planning and environmental assessments.

A field study on a saline condition was carried out at agricultural farm of Deglet Nour date palm during the 2012 growing season. It focuses on the irrigation water management problem as affected by salinity in Oued Righ region (North Eastern Sahara, Algeria). To determine irrigation requirements a computer model based on the computation of reference evapotranspiration, crop coefficient, water holding capacity, leaching requirements and daily water use by date palm was used. The average annual amount of irrigation for a palm tree was varied from 145-218 m . This model was employed to improve water management practices by the farmers. The result shows that localized irrigation will, therefore, be more efficient than non-localized one (e.g., border irrigation) and it can reduce irrigation water up to 50%.

Determining land suitability is a preliminary procedure to define and determine land fitness for a given type of production. A suitability analysis performed with inadequate methods will not guarantee a successful or significant process. The current attempt to consider new strategies and techniques for the Algerian agricultural systems comes as a part of a process of reflection that aims to understand the land resource planning process for agriculture, specifically in Ouargla, Algeria. The aim of the study is also to present a process that is based on the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and hierarchical multicriteria analysis; this process has demonstrated its relevance to the understanding of complex spatial problems. The suggested approach provides an information reference for the construction of soil suitability maps for cereals in N’Goussa at Ouargla. Farming factors, such as the slope, soil characteristics, electrical and road networks, and land occupation, were integrated into the soil suitability map for cereals by using the geographic information system. Multiplying the weighted coefficients linked to these factors allows for a global land suitability map. The obtained results allow for the prioritization of the sites into four classes: high suitability, moderate suitability, low suitability and unsuitability. In fact, 60.06% of the total area is moderately suitable for cereals.