Qualitative land suitability evaluation for the growth of onion, potato, maize, and alfalfa on soils of the Khalat pushan research station

An area suitability assessment for crop production requires a considerable effort, which can provide necessary information for optimum land use. Agricultural land use has benefited significantly from the use of suitability systems in recent years. These systems have jointly showed their capabilities in the evaluation and assessment of suitable sites for a variety of crops.In the present study and research work land suitability evaluation (qualitative classification) has been determined for onion, potato, maize and alfalfa in Khalat pushan research station of Tabriz University in East Azerbaijan by using of Simple Limitation method (SLM), Limitation Method regarding Number and Intensity (LMNI) and parametric (PM) such as square root and storie methods. Climate, soil and landscape qualities and their characteristics which most influence crop suitability have been combined by the adopted methodology. In this study economic factors have been excluded and moderate management has been assumed. The use of different methods showed that the most important limitation factors are climate, lime, pH, OM, texture and gravel alone or in combinations. Evaluation indicates that SLM and LMNI show similar suitability classes, which confirms the previous findings for several crops by other researchers. However, in many cases the use of parametric methods, especially the square root method revealed to be more realistic in showing the distinguished suitability classes in many cases. Therefore, based on the obtained results (especially by the square root method), the cultivation of alfalfa, potato and onion can be recommended, except for soil profile 2, which is not suitable (N2) for onion.