Spatial Assessment of Land Suitability Potential for Agriculture in Nigeria
From land cover analysis, cropland expansion was a major driving factor for land use land cover changes in Nigeria from 2000 to 2020. This further highlights the food production needs in the country. While this land use change indicates a significant alteration in land cover, it was exigent to asses...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Foods |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/13/4/568 |
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| author | Jeffrey Chiwuikem Chiaka Lin Zhen Yu Xiao Yunfeng Hu Xin Wen Fabien Muhirwa |
| author_facet | Jeffrey Chiwuikem Chiaka Lin Zhen Yu Xiao Yunfeng Hu Xin Wen Fabien Muhirwa |
| author_sort | Jeffrey Chiwuikem Chiaka |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | From land cover analysis, cropland expansion was a major driving factor for land use land cover changes in Nigeria from 2000 to 2020. This further highlights the food production needs in the country. While this land use change indicates a significant alteration in land cover, it was exigent to assess land suitability using a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) combined with geospatial techniques to identify areas with agricultural suitability potential and to analyze cropland suitability. The results showed that the country had 8% of very high suitability, high suitability (25%), moderate suitability (29%), and marginal suitability (25%) croplands. However, low suitability accounts for 14% of the entire cropland. The spatial distribution of cropland suitability shows that most areas in the South East, South South, and South West, respectively, have the most suitable cropland as they meet the biophysical conditions for crop production, followed by the North Central regions, while most places in the North (North East and North West) have a higher share of moderate to low suitability. This study highlights the potential of the country to target localized self-sufficiency. Therefore, this study recommends using the cropland suitability map to launch food security programs across the six geopolitical zones to maximize their inherent environmental potentials to alleviate the country’s food production needs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T22:32:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-688ad355db144590a224890f5e1508ca |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2304-8158 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T22:32:36Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Foods |
| spelling | doaj.art-688ad355db144590a224890f5e1508ca2024-02-23T15:16:26ZengMDPI AGFoods2304-81582024-02-0113456810.3390/foods13040568Spatial Assessment of Land Suitability Potential for Agriculture in NigeriaJeffrey Chiwuikem Chiaka0Lin Zhen1Yu Xiao2Yunfeng Hu3Xin Wen4Fabien Muhirwa5Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaInstitute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaInstitute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaInstitute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaInstitute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaInstitute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaFrom land cover analysis, cropland expansion was a major driving factor for land use land cover changes in Nigeria from 2000 to 2020. This further highlights the food production needs in the country. While this land use change indicates a significant alteration in land cover, it was exigent to assess land suitability using a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) combined with geospatial techniques to identify areas with agricultural suitability potential and to analyze cropland suitability. The results showed that the country had 8% of very high suitability, high suitability (25%), moderate suitability (29%), and marginal suitability (25%) croplands. However, low suitability accounts for 14% of the entire cropland. The spatial distribution of cropland suitability shows that most areas in the South East, South South, and South West, respectively, have the most suitable cropland as they meet the biophysical conditions for crop production, followed by the North Central regions, while most places in the North (North East and North West) have a higher share of moderate to low suitability. This study highlights the potential of the country to target localized self-sufficiency. Therefore, this study recommends using the cropland suitability map to launch food security programs across the six geopolitical zones to maximize their inherent environmental potentials to alleviate the country’s food production needs.https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/13/4/568land coverenvironmental factorscropland suitabilityanalytical hierarchal processNigeria |
| spellingShingle | Jeffrey Chiwuikem Chiaka Lin Zhen Yu Xiao Yunfeng Hu Xin Wen Fabien Muhirwa Spatial Assessment of Land Suitability Potential for Agriculture in Nigeria Foods land cover environmental factors cropland suitability analytical hierarchal process Nigeria |
| title | Spatial Assessment of Land Suitability Potential for Agriculture in Nigeria |
| title_full | Spatial Assessment of Land Suitability Potential for Agriculture in Nigeria |
| title_fullStr | Spatial Assessment of Land Suitability Potential for Agriculture in Nigeria |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spatial Assessment of Land Suitability Potential for Agriculture in Nigeria |
| title_short | Spatial Assessment of Land Suitability Potential for Agriculture in Nigeria |
| title_sort | spatial assessment of land suitability potential for agriculture in nigeria |
| topic | land cover environmental factors cropland suitability analytical hierarchal process Nigeria |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/13/4/568 |
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