Gis-Based Multi Criteria Model for Location of Rice Aggregation Centers in Anambra State

Abstract

Rice aggregation centers are tasked with checkmating substandard agricultural produce that are often encountered by the integrated millers during the course of buying from farm to farm to ensure already made market for their produce. Thus, it must be well placed to occupy strategic positions such that all different rice cultivating zones of the state get access to the facility. Given that these facilities will provide salient services, sets of demand points tasked with the provision storage, processing capability and a constant market for various rice farmers within the state. It is pertinent that these facilities are located properly considering all unique factors on ground. This study therefore aimed at a GIS-based multi criteria model for location of rice aggregation centers in Anambra State. The study was carried out using Geographical Information System (GIS) technology. Several GIS thematic layers were obtained and considered important factors in citing rice aggregation centers such as road network, Land Use and Land Cover (LULC), slope, river, cost distance, electricity network, floodplains, erosion plains and proximity to rice farms. It revealed optimal locations for siting a modular aggregation rice center at Nzam, Onoia, Aguleri, Nando, Akenu, Achalla, Ezira, Ndiokpalaeze, Ogbakuma and Uli. The goal throughout this study was to provide a reliable and complete analysis of siting modular rice aggregation centers in the agricultural zones in Anambra State. The approach and results obtained in this study are recommended as a spatial decision tool for site selection of modular rice aggregation centers in developing countries.

Determination of Optimized Locations for Modular Rice Paddy Aggregation Centres in Anambra State, Nigeria by GIS-Based Approach

“…It is one of the priority crops which have attracted the attention of the Federal government in her pursuit of food security. According to Okpala et al, (2021), Nigerian agricultural sector is undergoing series of reformation that will help to stabilize food security in the country. To achieve this, a lot of resources have been invested in rice production aimed at reaching self sufficiency.…”

“…In all these, Nigeria is yet to attain self-sufficiency in production of rice since supply is yet to meet demand (Okpala et al, 2021b). Smallholder farmers in Anambra state play an important role in agricultural production; resulting in about 30-40 percent of total rice output and 70 percent of the marketed produce (Julia and Martina 2020; Okpala et al, 2021a). Smallholder rice agriculture as a main source of food, livelihoods and employment for many rural households in Anambra state is overloaded by numerous phases of challenges relating to storage, transportation, aggregation and sales of the harvested crops.…”

“…Recent growth in field of decision making leads to dramatic improvements in the capabilities of GIS in location analysis. These growths are reviewed through analysis of attribute data especially procedures for Multi-Criteria and location analysis in GIS (Rikalovic et al, 2014;Okpala et al 2021a). Jia et al 2011 andOkpala et al 2021a highlighted the importance of GIS as tools for monitoring and planning purposes and recommended it as quite appropriate for location modelling.…”

“…According to Tali et al (2017), GIS location modelling aids planners to locate facilities and also to support them in taking a decision about where to locate facility or facilities inside a chosen location. This technique is used in conjunction with other systems and methods such as systems for Decision Support Ssystem (DSS) and the method of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) (Rikalovic et al 2014, Okpala et al 2021a. Synergistic effect, generated by combining these tools contribute to the efficiency and quality of spatial analysis for industrial site selection (Malczewski ,2006;Khalid, 2013;Okpala et al 2021a).…”

“…This technique is used in conjunction with other systems and methods such as systems for Decision Support Ssystem (DSS) and the method of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) (Rikalovic et al 2014, Okpala et al 2021a. Synergistic effect, generated by combining these tools contribute to the efficiency and quality of spatial analysis for industrial site selection (Malczewski ,2006;Khalid, 2013;Okpala et al 2021a). One of the chief problems of facility selection is that it requires a lot of time for decision making, because of the number of factors to be considered for quality analysis (Fataei and Mohammadian .,2015 ;Sarath et al ,2018).…”