Land Suitability Assessment For Effective Crop Production, a Case Study of Taita Hills, Kenya

Abstract

A B S T R A C TAgriculture is the backbone of Kenya's economy. Agriculture in Kenya is characterized by low productivity due to low external inputs, lack of good farming practices, soil erosion, and other losses. In most farming regions of the country, agriculture depends entirely on rainfall which sometimes is scarce. The problem of selecting the correct land for the cultivation of certain crops is a long-standing and mainly empirical issue. The objective of this study is to extrapolate and generate a crop suitability map showing areas suitable for agricultural activities in Taita Hills in Kenya. It utilizes the information on environmental condition, altitude, rainfall and other relevant parameters of the case study where the variability of rainfall and recurrent droughts have a great impact on the lives of people whose livelihood is mainly dependent on subsistence agriculture. The methods used include development of elevation models, watershed mapping, climate variability mapping, soil erosion mapping that incorporates the revised universal soil loss empirical (RUSSLE) model and multi-criteria evaluation analysis. The analysis was done using the sum weighted overlay analysis of soil erodibility, slopes, vegetation index and rainfall availability in the modeling. Four categories were achieved and mapped out: most suitable, more suitable, less suitable and least suitable. The research implies that there can be both suitable areas and unsuitable areas for crops in Taita Hills. The study helps farmers to be aware of the environmental conditions of their agricultural land and the impacts that may arise due to varying climate conditions on their cropping patterns.

Suitability of Nutmeg Plant Habitats in Three Nutmeg Production Centers using the Geographic Information System and Aster DEM in West Java, Indonesia

“…The relationship between surface temperature and drought cannot be separated from the evapotranspiration process which is an interaction between temperature, plants and soil [14]. The natural limiting factors of land suitability in an area are rainfall and temperature, in which areas with low rainfall and high temperature are the least suitable [15].…”

Identification of Suitable Land for Green Gram Production Using GIS Based Analytical Hierarchy Process in Kitui County, Kenya

“…Other studies using this approach include; Ref. [12] who generated a crop suitability map showing areas suitable for agriculture in the Taita Hills in Kenya and land suitability analysis for potatoes in Nyandarua county [10].…”

“…The maps of soil texture, cation exchange capacity, soil depth, soil pH and soil drainage were extracted from Kenya Soil Survey map. The soils data used in this research has been used by other researchers in Kenya for similar studies on different crops [4,10,12,22]. Digital Intermediates values 2, 4, 6, 8 The 5 vector layers of soil (pH, drainage, texture, CEC and depth) were converted to raster and all layers resampled to 10 m pixels prior to their being used as inputs to the model.…”

How Ecocentrism and Anthropocentrism Influence Human–Environment Relationships in a Kenyan Biodiversity Hotspot

“…Rapid transformation of the original cloud forest into the current ecosystem mosaic started already during the pre-colonial era, about 200 years ago, and continues until today [21,22]. Agricultural intensification due to "favourable climatic and edaphic conditions" [23] (p. 167) combined with local high population density exacerbate environmental pressure and degradation progressively contributing to deforestation, habitat loss, and biodiversity loss [23][24][25][26]. The Taita Hills region is currently faced with great local complexities that are influenced by many different factors, such as the colonial period that the country and the region endured, the numerous postcolonial developments, competing socio-cultural influences, demographic developments, emerging conflicts and uncertainties, and the effects of climate change.…”