A GIS-based land suitability assessment of wheat production in Kano using selected physical parameters

Abstract

Wheat is the second largest contributor to Nigeria's food import bill and puts pressure on the foreign reserve of the nation. Land suitability assessment is a prerequisite to achieving optimum utilization of the available land resources. Lack of knowledge on best combination of factors that suit production of wheat has contributed to the low produce. The study aims to assess land suitability of wheat production in kano using selected physical materials with the objectives to map out existing locations for wheat production in kano state, determine other areas that may be suitable for wheat production. The study utilized Landsat 8; Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Multi-criteria Evaluator (MCE) integrated with GIS. Spatial factors for wheat cultivation such as soil texture, soil type, soil slope, rainfall range, geology map, elevation, land use land cover and their attribute were identified and were processed into spatial data. The factors were weighed according to their relevance. Land suitability model was constructed in ArcGIS software and spatial data were imported into (SRTM) and link to the land suitability model constructed. The spatial data integrated were computed and final visualization of land suitability map was produced and using ArcGIS 10.3 to identify potential areas. The result obtained showed that 16% were unsuitable, 19% were moderately suitable, 25% were highly suitably and then 40% were most suitable in the study area. Based on this finding, it is recommended that wheat cultivation should be practiced in a large scale in Kano state.