Land Suitability Evaluation for Organic Agriculture of Wheat Using GIS and Multicriteria Analysis

Abstract

Despite the growing interest in organic farming, its practice remains limited because of its lower productivity relative to conventional farming. Land suitability evaluation for organic crops can potentially improve productivity, and thus the economic viability of organic farming. The best analytical procedures for such evaluations have not yet been fully explored. This article addresses the evaluation of land suitability of present agricultural lands for organic agriculture of rain-fed winter wheat using Duplin County, North Carolina, a location economically dependent on agriculture, as a case study. A novel land suitability evaluation procedure is developed combined with seventeen suitability criteria from five principal categories including climatic parameters, soil characteristics and qualities, soil chemistry, soil organic matter and fertility, and flood and erosion hazards by using geographic information systems (GIS), multicriteria analysis, and the square root method. Our analysis demonstrates that although 18.6 percent of agricultural lands in Duplin County are highly suitable for organic winter wheat production, a large proportion (76.8 percent) of agricultural lands are also moderately suitable. The method of suitability analysis used in this research, which allows specific consideration of soil organic matter and fertility as particularly critical factors for organic farming, can be easily exported to other locations, for similar applications.

Land suitability levels for rainfed maize under current conditions and climate change projections in Mexico

“…Therefore, the procedure requires climate and environmental information for species requirements, in this instance, the rainfed maize crop. The method used the optimal intervals of temperature and precipitation for rainfed maize production in order to generate theoretical agroclimatic maps (suitability maps) of appropriate areas for production during the spring–summer agricultural cycle (May–August period) as other authors have done previously (Bonfante et al, 2015; FAO, 1984; Kalogirou, 2002; Karimi et al, 2018).…”

“…Knowing the future changing areas allows farmers to take adaptation actions. However, the analytical procedures for such evaluations have not yet been fully explored (Karimi et al, 2018). Challinor et al (2015) suggest greater attention is needed on crop suitability and land use change when assessing the impacts of climate change.…”

“…Knowing the future changing areas allows farmers to take adaptation actions. However, the analytical procedures for such evaluations have not yet been fully explored (Karimi et al, 2018).…”

Evaluating the application of the statistical index method in flood susceptibility mapping and its comparison with frequency ratio and logistic regression methods

“…However, more robust and precise methods are required to overcome the disadvantages of the traditional hydrological methods. Qualitative methods, such as an analytic hierarchy process (AHP), assesses the flood susceptibility using a multicriteria analysis framework (Karimi et al 2018). The AHP method has been used by Dahri and Abida (2017) to map the flood-prone areas on the Kassandra Peninsula in northern Greece.…”

Assessment of land suitability for the production of major crops in Ayrancı district of Karaman province located at arid terrestrial ecosystem

“…That's why, suitability is a measure of how well the qualities of a land unit match the requirements of a particular form of land use (FAO, 1976). Many methods generally divided into hierarchic and parametric approaches by take into consideration of limitations have been developed for the assessment of land suitability (Dengiz and Sarıoğlu, 2013;Karimi et al, 2018). Simple limitation, regarding number and intensity of limitations, Storie, and square root (Khiddir, 1986) methods are the most widely used (Sys et al, 1991;Dengiz, 2002;Rabia and Terribile, 2013).…”