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 forattaining proper land use planning of various agro-ecological zones especially in aridterrestrial ecosystem condition area to ensure that land is not degraded and that it is usedaccording to its capacity to satisfy human needs for present and future generation. The aimof this research was to assess land suitability for the production of major crops in aridterrestrial ecosystem. The study area was carried out Ayrancı district of Karaman province isabout 4760 4km^2$ 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 1774m from sea level and long term annual average precipitation and temperature are 330.8 mmand 12 oC. According to Newhall simulation model, it was determined that soil temperatureregime is mesic and moisture regime is weak aridic. The land mapping units were primarilydescribed and land characteristics and qualities were determined using 1:5.000 scaled soilmaps of the study area. Land use types to be considered were described and their landrequirements were determined. The land requirement of the land use types were comparedwith the land characteristics and land qualities of land mapping units. The results of thematching process combined with those of assessment and produced a classification showedthe suitability of each land mapping unit for each relevant land use type. The agriculturalsuitability maps prepared revealed that only 8.4 % of the study area soils was not suitable foragricultural 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 soilconditions. Moreover, about 35.4% of the total area was found non suitable for vegetablecrops in the study area.