QUALITATIVE LAND SUITABILITY ASSESSMENT AND ESTIMATING LAND PRODUCTION POTENTIAL FOR MAIN IRRIGATED CROPS IN NORTHERN OF FARS PROVINCE

The aim of this research is land suitability evaluation (qualitative) and estimation of biomass net production (Bn) and yield potential (Y) for wheat and sugar beet in a 15000-hectare area in Fars province in southern Iran. Climate data for last 25 consecutive years were collected from the nearest synoptic meteorological Station. These soils were classified based on semi details studies with 5 physiographic units and were classified in four orders of Alfisols, Vertisols, Inseptisols and Entisols consisted of eleven soil families based on soil data and Keys to Soil Taxonomy. Qualitative evaluation was carried out using the square root of parametric (SRP) method and yield potential was calculated for the area based on FAO method. The results showed that the climatic class of the surveyed area is moderately suitable (S2) for wheat and very suitable (S1) for sugar beet due to limitations imposed by the relative humidity of the growing cycle. According to the parametric method, the studied area can be classified from (S2) to (N1) for the mentioned products. For different soil units, the parametric method (square root method) is better than limitation method. Finally, yield potential was calculated for sugar beet and wheat in the Aspas as 9307.49 and 7206.13kg DM per hectare, respectively. Regarding the parametric multi-criteria evaluation, the soil qualities characteristics including soil physical properties (s), topography (t), water table limitations (w) and soil fertility(F) are the most limiting factors for studied crops.