Land Suitability Assessment for Crop Cultivation by Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Land evaluation is the process of assessing the possible uses of land for different purposes. Land suitability analysis is a method of land evaluation, which measures the degree of appropriateness of land for a certain use. The present study is a qualitative evaluation of land to determine land suitability in Ghatal block, Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal for rice and wheat cultivation based on four pedological variables, like Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium (NPK) status, soil reaction (PH), Organic Carbon (OC) and soil texture that are mandatory input factors for crop cultivation. All these factors have been rated based upon the proposed method of Sys et al (1993). The qualitative approach given by FAO (1976) has also been used to classify the land on the basis of their suitability ranked classes (e.g. S1, S2, S3, N1 and N2). This study proposes an integrated methodology for analyzing and mapping of land suitability using the Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. The result indicated that only 12.71% of agricultural land can be demarcated as highly suitable for rice cultivation whereas 7.78% of agricultural land as highly suitable for wheat cultivation in the study area.