Assessment of land suitability for the production of major crops in Ayrancı district of Karaman province located at arid terrestrial ecosystem

Abstract

Land evaluation based on human, economic and physical resources is an important tool for attaining proper land use planning of various agro-ecological zones especially in arid terrestrial ecosystem condition area to ensure that land is not degraded and that it is used according to its capacity to satisfy human needs for present and future generation. The aim of this research was to assess land suitability for the production of major crops in arid terrestrial ecosystem. The study area was carried out Ayrancı district of Karaman province is about 4760 km² and located between 577076 m - 596768 m east and 41541331 m – 4174001 m north coordination. Elevation of the study area locates between 991 m and 1774 m from sea level and long term annual average precipitation and temperature are 330.8 mm and 12 ^oC. According to Newhall simulation model, it was determined that soil temperature regime is mesic and moisture regime is weak aridic. The land mapping units were primarily described and land characteristics and qualities were determined using 1:5.000 scaled soil maps of the study area. Land use types to be considered were described and their land requirements were determined. The land requirement of the land use types were compared with the land characteristics and land qualities of land mapping units. The results of the matching process combined with those of assessment and produced a classification showed the suitability of each land mapping unit for each relevant land use type. The agricultural suitability maps prepared revealed that only 8.4 % of the study area soils was not suitable for agricultural uses, 57.2 % of the soils was best suitable for agricultural uses. In addition, 70515.8 ha of the total study area was not suitable for horticulture cultivation whereas, 9859.1 ha was not suitable for field crop cultivation due to the unfavorable land and soil conditions. Moreover, about 35.4% of the total area was found non suitable for vegetable crops in the study area.

Keywords

• Arid land,land use type,land characteristics and qualities,land suitability classification.

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