GIS assisted suitability analysis for wheat and barley crops through AHP approach at Yikalo sub-watershed, Ethiopia

Land suitability analysis is a fundamental system to identify the natural resource potentials and limitations of a given area that could help to provide decisions on the farming. Thus, for sustainable management of the land, suitability analysis for wheat and barley production was done on a watershed basis at Lay-Gayint District. The most important climatic, topographic and soil parameters were selected. Each parameter was subjected for pair-wise comparison following Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The suitability of each factor for wheat and barley was generated and the overall suitability of the land was developed using weighted overlay tool of GIS software. The final output map showed that 83.21% (1945.17 ha) of the study area is moderately suitable, and 16.79% (392.52 ha) was marginally suitable for wheat cultivation. Likewise, it was observed that 86.14% (2013.61 ha) and 13.86% (324.08 ha) of the watershed was moderately and marginally suitable, respectively, for barley production. Soil pH, AWC, TN, and available P were identified as the principal limiting factors. Integration of AHP with GIS was observed as a strong tool for suitability classification in a watershed.