Development of perspective agricultural land use plan for Khordha district of Odisha using geospatial technology

Abstract

A study entitled Development of perspective agricultural land use planfor newlineKhordha district of Odisha using geospatial technology was carried out in the Khordha newlinedistrict of Odisha by using remote sensing and GIS. Different parameters like soil, climate, newlinetopography were obtained from field observation and from satellite images gathered from newlineUSGSearth explorer. 30 years climate data and satellites images by decadal interval were used newlineto perform the objectives like characterization of climatic condition, Land use land cover newline(LULC) change pattern, soil fertility analysis and crop suitability for major grown crops in newlineKhordha district. Spatial variation was observed among blocks in mean seasonal rainfall and newlinetemperature. A significant change in land use land cover was observed in agriculture, barren newlineand settlement category over last 30 years periods. Agriculture area experienced a net newlinedecrease of 11.60% area with an increase of 9.03% area was observed in settlement. newlineConversion of agricultural land to barren land and settlement, can be major threat to newlineenvironment. The net area change in water body (+0.38%) was due to conversion of wetland newlinein Chilika peripheral area for pisciculture activities. Cultivable soils of Khordha district, newlineaccounting of 74.91% acidic soil, 6.83% alkali soil and 18.26% neutral soil. Soil testing newlineresults revealed that, soil available nitrogen found to be low in rating, whereas available P2O5 newlineranged between low to medium and K2O between medium to high availability status. EC was newlinefound below threshold level suitable for all crops for all type in soils. Soil organic carbon newlinevaries medium to high as the land category changes from high to low elevation. Mostly newlineblocks like Balianta, Balipatana, Chilika resulted with high OC content. Since the majority of newlinethe study area had slopes ranging from level to nearly level, almost 93% of the total land was newlinefound to be under slightly to moderate erosion class. From the crop suitability analysis, high newlinelands of the study area was found unsuitable for rice crop prod