Land Resources Evaluation for Sustainable Agriculture in El-Qusiya Area, Assiut, Egypt

Abstract

I NCREASING the cultivated areas in Egypt is necessary to achieve over-growing population sufficiency. However, accurate land evaluation is great concern to achieve sustainable agricultural production. The current study aimed at evaluating land capability and suitability in El-Qusiya City, Assiut Governorate, Egypt using Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques. The soils of the study area belonged two land capability classes according to Storie index; fair (Grade 3) that occupied an area about 53.97 km 2 (56.95%) of the total study area, and poor (Grade 4) that occupied an area about 40.79 km 2 (43.046%) of the total study area with slope and other soil limitation factors, and two suitability class according to Sys and Verheye system; classes marginal suitable (S3) that occupied an area about 65.85 km 2 (68.93%) of the total study area with severe limitations and presently not suitable (N1) that occupied an area about 28.91 km 2 (30.26%) of the total study area with very severe limitations that can be corrected. The Cervatana model showed that land capability classes of the study area are good (S2)) that occupied an area about 62.8 km 2 of the total study area, moderate (S3) that occupied an area about 3.05 km 2 of the total study area and marginal (N) that occupied an area about 28.91 km 2 of the total study area with limiting factors of soil (i), erosion risks (r) and bioclimatic deficit (b). The Almagra model for land suitability appraisal of different crops (Wheat, Maize, Watermelon, Potato, Soybean, Cotton, Sunflower, Sugar beet, Alfalfa, Peach, Citrus, and Olive) evaluation illustrated that the area belonged to suitability classes of high suitable (S2), moderate suitable (S3), marginally suitable (S4) and not suitable (S5). with limitation factors of texture (t), drainage (d), carbonate (c), salinity (s), sodium saturation (a) and profile development (g). The most obvious limiting factors for the selected crops were salinity and sodium saturation.

Characterization and classification of soils of Bako Tibe District, West Shewa, Ethiopia

“…To evaluate the quality of our natural resources and their potential to produce food, fodder, fiber, and fuel for the present and future generations, detailed information on soil properties is needed. Accurate land evaluation is a great concern to achieve sustainable agricultural production (Fadl and Sayed, 2020). Moreover, understanding soil properties and their distribution over an area are useful for sustainable development and the efficient use of limited land resources (Sanchez et al, 2003).…”

Application of GIS Techniques and ASLE Program for Soil Fertility Assessment at Samannoud District, Gharbia Governorate, Egypt.

“…Their results indicated that the study area was not suitable for citrus and onion, moderately suitable for growing maize, and highly suitable for barley, date palm and wheat. Land suitability varied from one region to another, with some areas being very suitable while others were moderately suitable or marginally suitable (Fadl and Sayed, (2020) and Jalhoum et al (2022). The major goals of this study were to assess the soil fertility of some soils in Egypt's Samannoud District, Gharbia Governorate and determine whether they were suitable for a few critical crops using the ASLE program and GIS techniques.…”

Mapping Soil Properties and Land Evaluation for Agricultural Purposes, El Alamein Area, the North-Western Coast, Egypt

“…Sayed and Khalafalla (2021) used GIS techniques for land evaluation of some soils in Northwest of Dashlut, Assiut, Egypt. The same techniques were used for the same purpose in Eastern Sohag (Moursy et al, 2020), Tushka area (Abd El-Aziz, 2018), Southwest of Aswan city (Aldabaa and Yousif, 2020), ElQusiya Area, Assiut (Fadl and Sayed, 2020), and Bahariya Oasis (Shokr et al, 2022).…”