An Agro-ecological Land Suitability Analysis Using GISFor Oil Palm Plantation in Southern Thailand

摘要

Due to rapid increase in the demand ofrnNatural Rubber (NR) few years ago, NR price sore veryrnhigher. The rubber plantation in Thailand expanded veryrnfast to non traditional areas with the result Thai become thernbiggest NR exporting country in the world. However, thernaverage yield is still lower compared to experimental yieldrnof RRIT (Rubber Research Institute of Thailand) or just 60rn% (RRIT, 1998). This is due to many of new rubberrnplanting areas, which are not suitable. The Thai Ministry ofrnAgriculture and Cooperatives thus has set "The completerncycle development strategies for natural rubber" in thernmedium-term measures by reducing the rubber plantingrnareas by 300,000 rai (1 rai = 0.16ha) through replantingrnwith oil palm.rnThe aim of this study is to find out land havingrnlowest potential for rubber production (R3) but highest forrnoil palm production (P1). Find areas which are unsuitablernfor rubber and can be replaced by oil palm in order to get arnbetter agricultural production.rnThe study was applied upon Krabi province,rnThailand. Crops requirement, degree of limitation to cropsrngrowth, climatic data, crops yield, soil map, topographicrnmap etc., were used to evaluate land potential for bothrnrubber and oil palm production according to FAOrnframework (Sys, 1992). An Agro-ecological suitability maprnfor rubber and oil palm were produced. This was done byrnmean of GIS. The database was generated and guide maprnfor the decision makers in view of suitable crop substitutionrnwas prepared.