Analysis of Land Suitability for Agriculture in Hemavathy Watershed

Scientific Land evaluation reduce the human influence on natural resources, identify appropriate land use, able to increase the land productivity. The present study is to study the land suitability of crops in Hemavathy basin watershed in order to implement sustainable cropping systems enabling optimum crop development and maximum productivity. GIS technology has been used in matching the suitability of soil details for main crops according to requirements of the crops and land characteristics in the sub watersheds for land-suitability assessment. Various date satellite data of khariff, rabi are studied to know the land use status for the particular agriculture season. A large database has been created for land use / land cover suitability, for planning sustainable agricultural development. In this study only 6 major crops were selected i. e. , paddy, ragi, jowar, maize, sugarcane, and coffee. Suitability and capability maps for each land use were developed to illustrate their suitability degrees, soils suitable for agriculture, in better land use options that could be implemented compared to land evaluation methods for the suitability of various crops.