Site suitability analysis for kiwi fruit plantation in Uttarakhand using GIS

Abstract

The present study has been conducted to analyze the suitability of Kiwi fruit in Uttarakhand state. The study area is located between latitude 28o43’N and 31o27’N and longitude 77o34’E and 81o02’E and covers approximately 53,485 sq km. A suitability resulting from the overlay process of the identified theme layers considering the requirement of kiwi on which the suitability is based exhibits the regions where kiwi could be grown. The identified theme layers include temperature (maximum, minimum, average temperature, altitude). All thematic layers with their associated attribute data were encoded in GIS database. Overlay operation was performed on these layers through raster calculation after giving different conditions related to the kiwi fruit in Quantum GIS (2.12.0) the analysis was a result of the crop requirements and the range of input variables in the state. Calculation was applied to formulate the suitability classes. The results indicate that height ranges from 400-1100m is unsuitable, 1100-1800m is highly suitable however 1800-2500 is suitable for the plantation of kiwi fruit. On the basis of the results, it can be recommended that kiwi fruit can be grown on the larger area of Uttarakhand state, most of the area of Uttarakhand state is highly suitable for growing the kiwi except District Udham singh nagar, Haridwar, and some part of Dehradun while district Chamoli, some part of Tehri Garhwal and some part of Nainital are suitable for growing Kiwi.