Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Land suitability assessment for optimal cropping sequences in Katihar district of Bihar, India using GIS and AHP

  • Published:
Spatial Information Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The main objective of the study is to assess land suitability for suggesting suitable crop sequences in Katihar district of Bihar, India. We first selected site-specific factors and assigned their weights using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for land suitability assessment. The layers of factors were integrated to prepare land suitability map. The findings revealed that of the total area (3.05 million ha), the largest area (48.5%) was marginally suitable for agriculture followed by moderately suitable (30.8%) and highly suitable (2.9%). Nearly 17.8% area was found unsuitable for agriculture. Rice–maize–rice, rice–maize–jute and maize–maize–rice were found suitable crop sequences in all suitability classes. Multilinear regression analysis between land suitability and factors shows that soil texture, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, pH and drainage proximity influenced land suitability. The study suggested soil reclamation, application of adequate amount of fertilizers, assured irrigation and flood control for sustainable crop sequences in the study area. Land restoration and soil reclamation measures should be taken to transform unsuitable areas for crop cultivation. Use of integrated geographical information system and AHP approach for analyzing land suitability and crop sequences may add a new dimension in spatial information science.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. FAO. (2019). Food and Agriculture Organization, India at a Glance. Retrieved June 10, 2019, from http://www.fao.org/india/fao-in-india/india-at-a-glance/en/.

  2. Sajjad, H., Nasreen, I., & Ansari, S. A. (2014). Assessing spatiotemporal variation in agricultural sustainability using sustainable livelihood security index: Empirical illustration from Vaishali district of Bihar, India. Agroecology and Sustainable Food System, 38(1), 46–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. FAO. (2018). The state of agricultural commodity markets. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, Retrieved February 5, 2019, from http://www.fao.org/3/I9542EN/i9542en.pdf.

  4. McDowell, N., Allen, C. D., Anderson-Teixeira, K., Brando, P., Brienen, R., Chambers, J., et al. (2018). Drivers and mechanisms of tree mortality in moist tropical forests. New Phytologist, 219(3), 851–869.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Karimi, F., Sultana, S., Shirzadi Babakan, A., & Royall, D. (2018). Land suitability evaluation for organic agriculture of wheat using GIS and multicriteria analysis. Papers in Applied Geography, 4(3), 326–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. FAO. (1983). Guidelines: Land evaluation for rainfed agriculture. FAO Soils Bull. 52. Retrieve 5th February, 2019 from, http://www.fao.org/3/t0412e/t0412e.pdf.

  7. Yohannes, H., & Soromessa, T. (2018). Land suitability assessment for major crops by using GIS-based multi-criteria approach in Andit Tid watershed, Ethiopia. Cogent Food and Agriculture, 4(1), 1–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Jamil, M., Ahmed, R., & Sajjad, H. (2018). Land suitability assessment for sugarcane cultivation in Bijnor district, India using geographic information system and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process. GeoJournal, 83(3), 595–611.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Baja, S., Chapman, D. M., & Dragovich, D. (2002). A conceptual model for defining and assessing land management units using a fuzzy modeling approach in GIS environment. Environmental Management, 29(5), 647–661.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Jamil, M., Sahana, M., & Sajjad, H. (2018). Crop suitability analysis in the Bijnor District, UP, using geospatial tools and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process. Agricultural Research, 7(4), 506–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. De la Rosa, D., & Van Diepen, C. A. (2009). Qualitative and quantitative land evaluations. In Willy H. Verheye (Ed.), Land use, land cover and soil sciences-volume II: Land evaluation (pp. 59–77). Oxford: EOLSS Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Yitbarek, T., Kibret, K., Gebrekidan, H., & Beyene, S. (2013). Physical land suitability evaluation for rainfed production of cotton, maize, upland rice and sorghum in Abobo Area, western Ethiopia. American Journal of Research Communication, 1(10), 296–318.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Malczewski, J. (2002). Fuzzy screening for land suitability analysis. Geographical and Environmental Modelling, 6(1), 27–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Rasheed, S., & Venugopal, K. (2009). Land suitability assessment for selected crops in Vellore district based on agro-ecological characterisation. Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, 37(4), 615–629.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Halder, J. C. (2013). Land suitability assessment for crop cultivation by using remote sensing and GIS. Journal of geography and Geology, 5(3), 65–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Mathewos, M., Dananto, M., Erkossa, T., & Mulugeta, G. (2018). Parametric land suitability assessment for Rainfed agriculture: The case of Bilate Alaba sub-watershed, Southern Ethiopia. Agrotechnology, 7(183), 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Kahsay, A., Haile, M., Gebresamuel, G., & Mohammed, M. (2018). Land suitability analysis for sorghum crop production in northern semi-arid Ethiopia: Application of GIS-based fuzzy AHP approach. Cogent Food and Agriculture, 4(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Bock, M., Gasser, P. Y., Pettapiece, W. W., Brierley, A. J., Bootsma, A., Schut, P., et al. (2018). The land suitability rating system is a spatial planning tool to assess crop suitability in Canada. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 6(77), 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Zhang, J., Su, Y., Wu, J., & Liang, H. (2015). GIS based land suitability assessment for tobacco production using AHP and fuzzy set in Shandong province of China. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 114, 202–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Collins, M. G., Steiner, F. R., & Rushman, M. J. (2001). Land-use suitability analysis in the United States: Historical development and promising technological achievements. Environmental Management, 28(5), 611–621.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Jamil, M., & Sajjad, H. (2016). Deriving cropping system efficiency pattern using remote sensing and GIS: A case study of Bijnor District, India. International Journal of Advanced Remote Sensing and GIS Geography, 4(2), 27–40.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Chen, J. (2014). GIS-based multi-criteria analysis for land use suitability assessment in City of Regina. Environmental Systems Research, 3(1), 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Davidson, D. A. (1992). Alternative approaches to land capability assessment. In D. A. Davidson (Ed.), The evaluation of land resources (pp. 71–76). Scotland: Longman Scientific and Technical.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Saaty, T. L. (2008). Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process. International Journal of Services Sciences, 1(1), 83–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Song, B., & Kang, S. (2016). A method of assigning weights using a ranking and nonhierarchy comparison. Advances in Decision Sciences, 2016, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/8963214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Census of India. (2011). Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Retrieved June 20, 2019, from http://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/1010_PART_B_DCHB_KATIHAR.pdf.

  27. Agriculture and Contingency Plan. (2016). Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare. Retrieved June 20, 2019, from http://agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/BR6_Katihar_28.12.2013.pdf.

  28. Kriticos, D. J., Webber, B. L., Leriche, A., Ota, N., Macadam, I., Bathols, J., et al. (2012). CliMond: Global high-resolution historical and future scenario climate surfaces for bioclimatic modelling. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 3(1), 53–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Samanta, R. K., Bhunia, G. S., Shit, P. K., & Pourghasemi, H. R. (2018). Flood susceptibility mapping using geospatial frequency ratio technique: A case study of Subarnarekha River Basin, India. Modeling Earth Systems and Environment, 4(1), 395–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Wind, Y., & Saaty, T. L. (1980). Marketing applications of the analytic hierarchy process. Management Science, 26(7), 641–658.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. George, H. (2005). An overview of land evaluation and land use planning at FAO. FAO (ed.). Rome: FAO.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and valuable suggestions which helped us to improve the overall quality of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

    Vinay Prasad Mandal, Sufia Rehman, Raihan Ahmed, Md. Masroor, Pavan Kumar & Haroon Sajjad

Authors
  1. Vinay Prasad Mandal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sufia Rehman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Raihan Ahmed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Md. Masroor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Pavan Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Haroon Sajjad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Haroon Sajjad.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mandal, V.P., Rehman, S., Ahmed, R. et al. Land suitability assessment for optimal cropping sequences in Katihar district of Bihar, India using GIS and AHP. Spat. Inf. Res. 28, 589–599 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41324-020-00315-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41324-020-00315-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation