Land Suitability for None-Rice Cultivation Areas in Ekiti State Using a GIS-Based Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach

This research aimed at carrying out a land suitability analysis for non-rice cultivation areas in part of Ekiti state using a Geographic Information System based Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach with a view to ascertaining whether rice can grow in commercial quantities in other Local Government Areas that will lead to improving rice production in the State. To achieve the aim of the research, specific objectives were set, which were to (i) determine the land use/land cover within the study area, (ii) assess the climatic, soil, and topographic factors that pertain to rice cultivation, and (iii) carry out a land suitability analysis on rice cultivation. In this study, the Analytical Hierarchy Process method was used to combine land use/land cover, rainfall, temperature, slope, soil texture, and pH to produce a land suitability map for rice cultivation in non-rice growing areas of the study area. The research result shows that the spatial expanse of land unsuitable for rice cultivation in the non-rice cultivation area of Ekiti state was 1121.6 km2 which translated to 44% of the entire study area. Similarly, areas moderately suitable and suitable for the cultivation of rice were 529.1 km2 (21%) and 899 km2 (35%) of the study area respectively. Furthermore, the outcome of AHP validation showed that the consistency ratio was 0.07, which was less than the specified standard maximum value of 0.1, which signifies that there was a realistic degree of uniformity in the pairwise comparison. Based on the obtained results, it was discovered that: the built-up area in the study was only 5.2%, which signified that the remaining 94.8% of the study area was undeveloped and can serve agricultural purposes in the state. The land suitability map for non-rice cultivation produced for this study was detected to be a true representation of areas suitable for rice cultivation subject to overlay analysis and AHP validation. It was therefore recommended that this study can be used as vital background information for the improvement of rice production in Ekiti State Nigeria.