GIS-based land suitability assessment for Musa (ABB group) plantation

Bananas and plantains are the developing world’s fourth most important food commodity but supply could exceed demand by the end of the decade. An effective method of assessing environmental suitability for the extending banana plantation is needed. A multifactor spatial analysis can effectively assess the environmental suitability of an area for use as a banana plantation. This approach used the Geographic Information System (GIS), a combination of five environmental factors consisting of nineteen variables to express land suitability in five classes. One site was chosen for site assessment. This site fell in to a range of categories from highly suitable (S1) to not suitable (N1). To supply future demand for dried banana products information has to be integrated from land use types, current environmental conditions, soil characteristics, and the possibility for adjusting environmental conditions to make them more suitable for future growth. All of these factors were used to determine possible areas for new banana plantations under land management practices in Thailand