Firoz Ahmad from Vindhyan Ecology and Natural History Foundation (VENHF), along with R. H. Rizvi from the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute–Regional Research Station and A. K. Handa and A. Arunachalam from ICAR–Central Agroforestry Research Institute, have authored a research paper titled “Agroforestry Suitability Mapping: A Geospatial Approach for Quantifying Land Potential for Intensification” in the book Agroforestry for Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture in Asia and Africa (Springer). The article can be accessed on the Springer platform. We congratulate the authors. The abstract is reproduced below:
Geospatial and information technologies are now widely used in agricultural research and development, so their application in agroforestry research needs a scientific approach. Some of the applications are mapping of agroforestry areas, assessment of area under tree species on farmlands, and estimation of carbon sequestration in agroforestry systems. As far as the mapping of agroforestry areas is concerned, a single methodology may not be applicable to all types of remote sensing data. So, separate methodologies for medium- and high-resolution remote sensing data have been developed and standardized. Moreover, the identification and mapping of tree species on farmlands require more expertise than simply mapping agroforestry area and also some improved methodology. Therefore, another methodology based on object-oriented classification has been developed and successfully applied for mapping Populus deltoides, Salix alba, and Prosopis cineraria species.
Land suitability analysis (LSA) is a scientific method to assess the degree of fitness or suitability of land for a specific purpose. LSA and GIS are excellent tools for the sustainable planning and management of land. Agroforestry suitability mapping is also an important area, where these technologies can be judiciously applied. Land suitability for agroforestry can be done in GIS platform using different criteria like nutrient availability, slope, wetness, rainfall and elevation. Researchers have effectively utilized remote sensing and GIS modeling techniques for agroforestry suitability mapping at the local level to the national level. Geospatial and information technologies can be suitably harnessed for future agroforestry research and development in India. Both planners and farmers can be facilitated by the appropriate utilization of these technologies in decision-making.
