LAND SUITABILITY ANALYSIS FOR MAIZE CROP

IN OKARA DISTRICT USING GIS TECHNIQUES

Amira Baber Sheikha, Shahid Parvezb, Muhammad Ikramc
a

M.Phil Student, Dept of Space Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore <amirasheikh@ymail.com>
bAssist Prof, Dept of Space Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore <shahid.spsc@pu.edu.pk>
cEx-Principal Scientific Officer, Soil Survey of Punjab, Lahore <nirsg@yahoo.com>

www.pu.edu.pk

United Nations/Pakistan International Workshop on Integrated Use of Space Technologies for Food and Water
11-15
March 2013
ABSTRACT Identification of suitable land for Maize cropSecurity,
in Okara DistrictIslamabad,
by using Geographic
Information
System (GIS) techniques was the primary goal of this study. Maize crop grows in all provinces of Pakistan especially in
Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwah (KPK). This crop gets importance as a commercial/industrial crop because a large
number of products such as; starch, protein, oil, fiber, and sugar are produced from its grains. Beside its tremendous
demand/requirement in Pakistan, this crop has to face a lot of threats to grow which include; soil erosion, land
degradation, water shortage, environmental / meteorological problems, and soil fertility. Moreover, due to rapid
increase in urbanization, availability of fertile land is decreasing and a land for certain crops must be determined in
order to achieve higher productivity. This research focused to find suitable sites for Maize crop in Okara district of
Punjab province covering an area of 4,378 km2. The main goal of this research is to establish a spatial model for land
evaluation by applying Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and then merged it with GIS techniques. The
parameters used for land suitability analysis were soil pH, electrical conductivity, soil texture, organic matter and
ground water quality. On the basis of these parameters suitability maps were generated. Land suitability analyses
were performed by using the AHP method through assigning different weights to all parameters. Different Hierarchies
were placed under test through hit and trial method but preferred the hierarchy which was prcised and near to the
real environment as referred by Soil Survey Punjab (SSOP). In this model all required parameters worked together and
according to their suitability ratios that is, highly, moderately, marginally and not suitable, areas were identified for
this specific crop. From this study highly suitable area was accurately identified through AHP model under certain
limitations. A strong correlation was found between the ground sampled results by SSOP and the results drawn
through GIS. The result of this study shows that approximately 74% area of the Okara District was identified through

AHP, is highly correlated

with Punjab
Soil Survey
Report
(2005). This
study evaluates
that it is an easy approach to get
ggregation
of the
Rating
and
Weight
over
Hierarchy

suitable land which improves Maize crop production by using AHP method. It is highly useful for decision makers
including farmers to resolve their land degradation problems and to fulfill the food requirements of population which is
increasing drastically.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study was conducted
in collaboration with the
National
Research

Institute
in

Soil

of
and

Geomatics, Soil Survey of

Punjab
Pakistan

(SSOP),
who

Lahore,
provided

data, maps, and reports

along with logistic supports
free of cost. The authors
are highly grateful to the
Director

General

(SSOP)

and their staff for providing

valuable
and

data,

support

guidance
throughout

this study. We are also

thankful

Conclusions

to

International

Water-logging And Salinity

Land suitability analysis was carried out in Okara

Research

District for Maize crop by using GIS techniques. Land suitability assessment consists of
different criteria maps based on Boolean methodologies and some other techniques which
represent complex and classified maps with crisp boundaries, which contain some
uncertainties. To overcome these problems, 5 different available criteria were adopted for this
study including soil pH, EC, soil texture, organic matter and ground water quality, which are
essential for the assessment of any crop. Land suitability analyses were performed by using
the AHP method through assigning different weights to all parameters according to their
mutual suitability ratios i.e., highly, moderately, marginally and not suitable. AHP performed
very well for generating an overall land suitability map for Maize crop cultivation in the study
area based on the above mentioned five parameters. Through spatial modeling, it was
investigated that 74% of the total agriculture land in Okara District was found to be Highly
Suitable for Maize crop cultivation. It is further inferred that 19% of the total land comes
under Moderately Suitable, and 5.4% is Marginally Suitable. While only 2.2% of the total soil
falls under Not Suitable category for cultivating Maize crop in the study area. The current
work concludes that AHP is an easy approach to investigate land suitability assessment
studies based on soil surveyed data for any crop cultivation like Maize. It is highly useful for
decision makers to resolve their land degradation issues and fulfill increasing demand of

(IWASRI),
providing
data.

Institute
Lahore
water

for

Final Land Suitability Map and Graph

for Maize Crop Cultivation in Okara
District

related