A STUDY ON RICE CROP SUITABILITY IN BARPETA AND NAGAON DISTRICTS OF ASSAM THROUGH A MULTICRITERIA DECISION-MAKING APPROACH

Abstract

Land evaluation provides the crucial diagnostic framework that is the bedrock of contemporary sustainable rice farming practices. Through combining geospatial modeling that takes into account factors like edaphology, soil physical properties, topography, hydrology, and climatic risk, suitability testing helps identify the environment parameters that will ensure closing of yield gaps, maximizing fertilizer and water use efficiency, and protecting ecologically sensitive regions from unsustainable agriculture conversion. This paper focuses on the complex process of land evaluation and rice suitability testing, exploring the nexus between geospatial analysis, edaphic assessment, and remote sensing. In this analysis, the agricultural lands have been classified into Highly Suitable (S1), Moderately Suitable (S2), Marginally Suitable (S3), and Not Suitable (N). The findings reveal that Barpeta is mostly made up of areas which are moderately suitable (63%) and marginally suitable (32%), while there is only around 1% of area considered highly suitable in Barpeta. On the other hand, Nagaon has far more agricultural potential in which 50% areas are moderately suitable and over 15% are highly suitable. Marginal and unsuitable lands make up the rest of the areas in these districts. It is clear from the above analysis that both the regions have high agriculture potentials, which can further be converted to highly suitable lands.