Land evaluation procedure given by FAO for soil site suitability for various land utilization types for rainfed agriculture has been used to assess the land suitability for khasi mandarin orange and pineapple in East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya. The database on soil and land use/land cover was generated from IRS-P6 remote sensing satellite data, soil survey and laboratory analysis of soil samples to perform an integrated analysis in the Geographic Information System environment. Different soil chemical parameters and physical parameters were considered to evaluate soil site suitability for orange & pineapple. Different thematic layers were derived from soil map by using ArcGIS software. Subsequently all of them were overlaid and integrated in GIS environment and suitability criteria was applied to the resulted composite map and generated land suitability map for orange and pineapple. The result indicated that the soil sites of the study area are highly to marginally suitable for mandarin orange whereas it is marginally suitable for pineapple. The study reveals that highly suitable areas for orange are found in the Cherapunjee and Mawsynram area that covers 34.5 Sq.Km areas. Moderately suitable (37% of TGA) and marginally suitable (24% of TGA) areas are found only because of slope constraint (8%-30% slope). The hills with deep gorges and ravines on the southern portion of the district is found not suitable for orange plantation because of steep slopes (>30%) and stoniness. Land suitability analysis for pineapple showed that 81% area of total geographical area of the district is marginally suitable and 19% area is not suitable to support the crop. The district is marginally suitable because of topography (slope and erosion), soil fertility (base saturation and CEC) and climate.
Land users and planners need basic soil information, problems and potential and suitability of soils for various crops for sustained agricultural production. The information on the spatial distribution and suitability of various types of soils to various types of crops is crucial for planners and agricultural scientists to initiate and encourage farmers to practice cropping systems based on soil potential to various crop categories. Again optimizing crop production can be achieved through sustainable agriculture or farming. The concept of sustainable agriculture or farming involves producing quality products in an environmentally benign, socially acceptable and economically efficient way [
Pineapple is the second most important fruit crop of the North Eastern Region of India both in terms of area under plantation and production. Its area of cultivation is estimated to be about 20,126 hectares with an annual production of 167,518 tons in NER. Manipur stands first in production while Meghalaya has the largest area under pineapple cultivation and is second in production [
In Meghalaya Pineapple, Citrus fruits mostly Khasi mandarin orange, Banana, Arecanut and Papaya are the major fruit crops grown in the side slopes of hill either as pure crops or mixed with other plantations. Arecanut plantation covers the highest area followed by pineapple, citrus, banana and papaya. The production is highest in case of pineapple followed by orange, banana, papaya and arecanut [
East Khasi Hills is one of the 7 districts of the state of Meghalaya. The district occupies an area of 2748 Sq.Km with population of 660,923. It lies between 25˚07'13'' to 25˚41'16'' N latitute and 91˚21'24'' to 92˚09'27'' E longitude. The district is bounded by Ri-Bhoi district on the north, Karbi Anglong district on the north east, Jaintia Hills district on the east, Bangladesh on the south and West Khasi Hills district on the west (
Digital data of IRS-P6 (Resourcesat-1) LISS III sensor of October, 2005 (Spatial resolution of 23.5 m) was used to prepare physiography, land use land cover and parent
material type map from which soil map was derived by incorporating morphological characteristics and laboratory analysis data of soil profile. The methodology followed for extraction of information from satellite data is essentially of standard visual interpretation based on tone, texture, shape and size [
The diagnostic factor of topography (t) is a combination of landform and slope gradient. The landform and slope has predominant effect on the retentively of water during the growing period. Information on landform in terms of per cent slope is derived from DEM (Digital Elevation Model) generated using topographic map (1:50,000). The slope map is reclassified based on crop requirements and a map is generated showing the limitations of slope to the crop.
The land evaluation was done as per FAO (1983) [
The accuracy of maps prepared under this study was assessed by quality check team of North Eastern Space Applications Centre by verifying field photos, morphological & chemical properties of soil against the ground control pints collected with GPS.
The study reveals that soils of the district vary from Ultisols (50%), Alfisols (31%) and Inceptisols (19%) with udic moisture regimes and thermic temperature regimes (
graphical area of the district has got very high organic carbon (4.03% - 4.23%). The apparent CEC of soils varies from 3.5 to 33.8 [cmol(+)/kg clay] and base saturation varies from 11% to 50%.
The land suitability analysis for Khasi mandarin orange indicated that 63% area of the district is suitable (S) and 37% area is not suitable (N) for orange cultivation. It is observed that only 1% (34.54 Sq.Km) area of total geo graphical area (TGA) is highly suitable (S1) which are situated in the Cherapunjee and Mawsynram (World’s highest rainfall receiving area) area towards Bangladesh border. From field survey it is also found that the production of orange is high in the area and oranges are larger in size, juicier and sweeter in taste compared to other part of the district. A moderately suitable (S2) area covers 37% area of TGA which are situated in the undulating area of the Plateau with 8% - 16% slope. Marginally suitable (24% of TGA) areas are found in hill side with 16% - 30% slope. The hills with deep gorges and ravines on the southern portion of the district is found not suitable for orange plantation because of very steep slopes (>30%) and stoniness (
The suitability map of pineapple resulting from the spatial overlay all thematic layers and application of suitability criteria indicated that the soil sites of the study area are not highly suitable for pineapple (
The remote sensing data helps in preparing soil map with limited field survey for profile study and GIS helps in analysis of land suitability with spatial modeling that helps in assessing soil site suitability with higher accuracy. It also gives information on soil or landscape parameters which imparts limitation for the crop. The land suitability analysis provided the information on soil properties that limits crop growth. To assess the accuracy of the results found from the study, the crop yield was checked with the crop statistics obtained from directorate of Agriculture, Meghalaya. It is found that pineapple yield in the study area is less which is 6728 Kgs/ha compared to 11,128 Kgs/ha in Ri-bhoi district which produce highest pineapple in the state. It is also observed that since the district is not very suitable for pineapple only 951 ha area is under the crop which is 3513 ha in Ri-bhoi district of Meghalaya. Since both the soil and climatic conditions are suitable for orange the production of orange is highest and farmers adopted the crop because of which the cop covers highest area in the district. Therefore, it is suggested that planners can advise farmers to expand area under orange plantation based on soil suitability map.