Abstract:
There are a lot of challenges due to overexploitation of natural resources. Land resource plays an
important role in it. Increasing population and its needs are constantly utilizing the land resources. In
the face of insufficiency, land resources are being misused or over used. Land use planning is a
systematic way of addressing these problems. Land suitability evaluation using a scientific procedure
is a prerequisite for efficient land use planning. A set of land-use suitability maps would be very
useful in this respect. In fact, these maps should incorporate different criteria representing social,
economic and sustainable aspects of the land.
This study aims to find suitable land for selected crops using FAO based spatial multi criteria analysis
for the Valikamam East Divisional Secretariat of Jaffna District. In this analysis, physical and
economic parameters such as climate, soils, water, land use, accessibility of market and profit of the
crops have been used in order to perform land suitability evaluation. All these parameters were
separately standardized and weighted. Weighting gives priority value of each criterion based on
experts’ knowledge. The final suitability map for each crop was created by combining all weighted
criteria using decision rule called weighed summation method. The suitability ratings were expressed
into four classes: highly suitable (S1), moderately suitable (S2), marginally suitable (S3) and not
suitable (N).
This study reveals the land suitability evaluation for fifteen crops such as banana, cassava, chili,
coconut, cowpea, grapes, maize, mango, onion, paddy, papaw, potato, pumpkin, sugarcane, and
tobacco. The suitability maps showed that the areas allocated as highly suitable can be recommended
for sustainable crop cultivation. The resulting maps and tables lend efficient support to farmers and
decision makers in sustainable land use planning processes.
