Land Suitability Evaluation for High Land Agriculture in Devikulam Taluk, Idukki District, Kerala

Agriculture is now the most important use of land by man. The problem is to use land for what it is fit for according to the capabilities of soil and to raise the soil fertility and moisture and take the maximum output that it is capable of. Man still gets nearly all his food from the soil, less than one percent of what he eats being fish. Apart from the possible development of food producing resources other than land, the potential food supply depends on the amount of land suitable for food production and on the possibilities of increasing yields per unit of such land. Land suitability is the ability of a given type of land to support a defined use. The area selected for the present study is Devikulam taluk in Idukki district, Kerala. Physiographically the study area is diverse in nature. The study area is famous for tea production, Jaggery production, sandal wood and cool climate vegetables and fruits cultivation. Unscientific cultivation followed in certain part of study areas leads to fertile soil erosion, and less production. The eroded soil sometimes deposited in the low land paddy fields. Because of these, cultivation become difficult and less profitable in the study area. Monsoon failure, poor groundwater, eucalyptus cultivation near the crop land, land conversion and land fragmentation put the primary activity in a great stress. So most of the farmers change their activity and the land also converted to other than agriculture purposes. In order to conclude these problem land suitability evaluation is carried out on the basis of available groundwater potential and soil erosion vulnerability. Various terrain parameters have been taken into account and weighted overlay technique is executed in ArcGIS 9.3 platform. Through these analysis the land suitability model for the study area is arrived which shows the specific land use for a long period of time without deterioration. .