Land suitability evaluation for the development of orange growing areas in Ham Yen district, Tuyen Quang province

Abstract

This study is to evaluate the soil suitability for orange, therefore to propose sustainable specialized orange growing area in Ham Yen district, Tuyen Quang province. GIS was applied to build soil unit map of scale 1/25,000 of Ham Yen district based on layering result of 7 thematic maps: soil type, slope, soil texture, surface soil depth, stone mix ratio, exposed rock, irrigation regime. Soil was evaluated for suitable orange growing followed FAO guidelines and with scale of 1/25,000 in Ham Yen district. According to evaluation results, Ham Yen district has 20,730.61ha of very suitable and suitable levels (S1 and S2) for orange, accounted for 29.73% of total survey area.