Land Suitability Evaluation and Assessing Limitations for Industrial Plants Cultivation in Irrigated Plains of Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Prof., Soil and Water Research Institute, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

2 Assistant Prof., Soil and Water Research Institute, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

10.22092/ijsr.2024.362743.714

Abstract

The soil units in the irrigated plains across the country were identified based on previous soil studies, satellite images, land use maps, and agricultural-climatic zones. The purpose was to determine the land potential for irrigated cultivation of industrial crops such as sugar beet, cotton, safflower, and sugarcane. Then, the FAO framework and the square root parametric method were used to evaluate the land suitability for irrigated cultivation of these crops. The survey results revealed the land suitability classes for four crops under irrigated cultivation: sugar beet, cotton, safflower, and sugarcane. For sugar beet, out of 4 million hectares (Mha) of surveyed land, 1.23 Mha were in class S1 (highly suitable), 1.5 Mha in S2 (moderately suitable), 740 thousand hectares (Tha) in S3 (marginally suitable), 390 Tha in N1 (currently suitable), and 420 Tha in class N2 (permanently suitable). For cotton, out of 2.4 Mha of surveyed land, 75 Tha were in class S1, 671 Tha in S2, 895 Tha in S3, 420 Tha in N1, and 340 Tha in N2. For safflower, out of 2.2 Mha of surveyed land, 38 Tha were in class S1, 56 Tha in S2, 1.3 Mha in S3, 363 Tha in N1, and 398 Tha in N2. For sugarcane, out of 615 Tha of surveyed land, 6 Tha were in class S1, 18 Tha in class S2, 193 Tha in class S3, 98 Tha in class N1, and 300 Tha in class N2. The data was statisticaly analysed and the results indicated that the the land suitability classes were classified with resonable accuracy. The following factors were the main limiting characteristics that limited cultivation of the four crops under irrigation: For sugar beet: soil pH, salinity, alkalinity, and drainage; for cotton: climate, slope, salinity, alkalinity, lime and gypsum; for safflower: pH, drainage, salinity, alkalinity and climate; and for sugarcane: salinity, alkalinity, drainage and slope. Due attention to the prepared land suitability maps of the aforementioned crops would facilitate cultivation management for farmers and planners.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Arshad, M., Li, N., Zhao, D., Sefton, M., & Triantafilis, J. 2019. Comparing management zone maps to address in fertility and sodicity in sugarcane fields. Soil and Tillage Research, 193, 122-132.
  2. Behera, S.K., Mathur, R.K., Shukla, A.K., Suresh, K., & Prakash, C. 2018. Spatial variability of soil properties and delineation of soil management zones of oil palm plantations grown in a hot and humid tropical region of southern India. Catena 165, 251-259.
  3. Chiconato, D.A., Junior, G.S., Santos, D. & Munns, R. 2019. Adaptation of sugarcane plants to saline soil. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 162, 201-211.
  4. Davatgar, N., Neishabouri, M.R. & Sepaskhah, A.R. 2012. Delineation of site specific nutrient management zones for a paddy cultivated area based on soil fertility using fuzzy clustering. Geoderma 173-174:111-118.
  5. Dlamini N.E. & Zhou, M. 2022. Soils and seasons effect on sugarcane ratoon yield. Field Crops Research, 284, 108588
  6. Emongor, V.E. & Emongor R.A. 2023. Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), in: Neglected and Underutilized Crops, Future Smart Food, Ed; Farooq, M. and Siddique K.H.M. Academic Press, Pp: 683-731.
  7. Esfandiarpoor Borujeni, I., Mohammadi, J., Salehi, M.H., Toomanian, N. & Poch, R.M. (2010). Assessing geopedological soil mapping approach by statistical and geostatistical methods: A case study in the Borujen region, Central Iran. Catena 82, 1-14.
  8. FA 1976. A framework for land evaluation. FAO Soils Bulletin, No. 32. Rome: Land and Water Development Division, FAO, UN.
  9. Farhangi-Abriz, S., and Ghassemi-Golezan, K. 2021. Changes in soil properties and salt tolerance of safflower in response to biochar-based metal oxide nanocomposites of magnesium and manganese. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 211, 111904.
  10. Gandhi, G., and Savalia, S.G. 2014. Soil-site suitability evaluation for mustard in calcareous soils of Girnar toposequence in Southern Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Journal of Oilseed Brassica, 5(2), 128-133.
  11. Gopikrishnan, S., Srivastava G. & Priakanth, P. 2022. Improving sugarcane production in saline soils with Machine Learning and the Internet of Things. Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems, 35, 100743.
  12. Hoffmann, C.M. & Kenter, C. 2018. Yield potential of sugar beet - havewe hit the ceiling? Frontiers in Plant Science, 9, 289. doi:10.3389/fpls.2018.00289.
  13. Khorsandi, F., & Anagholi, A. 2009. Reproductive compensation of cotton after salt stress relief at different growth stages. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science, 195: 278-283.
  14. Kiymaz, S. & Ertek, A. 2015. Yield and quality of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) at different water and nitrogen levels under the climatic conditions of Kırsehir, Turkey. Agricultural Water Management 158: 156-165
  15. Mamatkulov, Z., Abdivaitov, K., Hennig, S., & Safarov, E. 2022. Land suitability assessment for cotton cultivation - a case study of Kumkurgan district, Uzbekistan. International Journal of Geoinformatics, 18(1), 71-80.
  16. Mandal, S., Choudhury, B.U. & Satpati, L. 2020. Soil site suitability analysis using geo-statistical and visualization techniques for selected winter crops in Sagar Island, India. Applied Geography, 122, 102249.
  17. Morais, et al., 2022. Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) under saline stress: Growth, productivity, technological quality, and industrial yield. Industrial Crops and Products, 188,
  18. Navidi, M.N., Chatrenour, M., Seyedmohammadi, J., Delsous Khaki, B., Moradi-Majd, N., & Mirzaei, S. 2023. Ecological potential assessment and land use area estimation of agricultural lands based on multi-time images of Sentinel-2 using ANP-WLC and GIS in Bastam, Iran. Environmental, Monitoring and Assessment, 195, 36.
  19. Navidi, M.N., Seyedmohammadi, J. & McDowell, R.W. 2022b. A proposed new approach to identify limiting factors in assessing land suitability for sustainable land management. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 53(19):2558-2573. doi:10.1080/00103624.2022.2072511.
  20. Razaji, A., Paknejad, F., Moarefi, M., Damghani, A. M., & Ilkaee, M.N. 2019. Meta-analysis of the effects of salinity stress on cotton (gossypium spp.) growth and yield in Iran. Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 26(1): 94-103.
  21. Sathiyamurthi, S., Saravanan, S., Sankriti, R., Aluru,·M., Sivaranjani, S., & Srivel, R. 2022. Integrated GIS and AHP techniques for land suitability assessment of cotton crop in Perambalur District, South India. International Journal of System Assurance Engineering. doi:10.1007/s13198-022-01705-2.
  22. Sayyad, Gh., Afyuni, M., Mousavi, S.F., Abbaspour, K.C., Richards, B.K., & Schulin, R. 2010. Transport of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in a calcareous soil under wheat and safflower cultivation, a column study. Geoderma, 154(3-4), 311-320.
  23. Seyedmohammadi, J. & Navidi, M.N. 2022. Applying fuzzy inference system and analytic network process based on GIS to determine land suitability potential for agricultural. Environ. Monit. Assess. 194, 712.
  24. Seyedmohammadi, J., Sarmadian, F., Jafarzadeh, A.A., & McDowel, R.W., 2019. Development of a model using matter element, AHP and GIS techniques to assess the suitability of land for agriculture. Geoderma 352, 80-95.
  25. Sharif I, Aleem S, Farooq J, Rizwan M, Younas A, Sarwar G, Chohan SM. 2019. Salinity stress in cotton: effects, mechanism of tolerance and its management strategies. Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants. 25(4): 807-820. doi: 10.1007/s12298-019-00676-2.
  26. Singh, S., Singh, S.P., Pathak, A.D., & Pandey, N. 2019. Assessment of waterlogging induced physiobiochemical changes in sugarcane varieties and its association with waterlogging tolerance. Journal of Environmetal Biology, 40(3): 384-392.
  27. Sposito, C. 2016. The Chemistry of Soils. 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, 272p.
  28. Tayyab, M., Wakeel, A., Mubarak, M.U., Artyszak, A., Ali, S., Hakki, E.E., Mahmood, K., Song, B. & Ishfaq, M. 2023. Sugar Beet cultivation in the tropics and subtropics: challenges and opportunities. Agronomy, 13, 1213. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13051213.
  29. Tripathi, R., Nayak, A.K., Shahid, M., Lal, B., Gautam, P., Raja, R., Mohanty, S., Kumar, A., Panda, B.B., & Sahoo, R.N., 2015. Delineation of soil management zones for a rice cultivated area in eastern India using fuzzy clustering. Catena 133, 128-136.
  30. Yeilaghi, H., Arzani A., Ghaderian, M., Fotovat, R., Feizi, M., & Pourdad, S.S. 2012. Effect of salinity on seed oil content and fatty acid composition of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) genotypes. Food Chemistry, 130:3, 618-625.

Zafar, M.M., Shakeel, A., Haroon, M., Manan, A., Sahar A. and Shoukat A. 2022. Effects of salinity stress on some growth, physiological, and biochemical parameters in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) germplasm. Journal of Natural Fibers, 19(14):885

Iranian Journal of Soil Research
Volume 37, Issue 4
March 2024
Pages 293-310

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics