Assessment of different methods of soil suitability classification for wheat cultivation
Abstract This study investigated the impact of soil temperature and soil moisture on the virulence To protect soil resources and also to achieve optimal crop production, it is essential to dedicate the most suitable land to a specific land use. Achieving this goal is possible through land use planning in conjunction with land evaluation. In this study a land suitability evaluation was carried out for wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivation, and was performed in the Bastam region located in the north east of Iran. 104 soil profiles were sampled and 11 land units were separated. In order to find out the most correct method of physical land suitability evaluation, three methods of combining soil criteria for soil index calculation for wheat production were tested. These methods are based on parametric and maximum limitation approaches, and the results of each method were compared with the observed yield. Ultimately, the maximum limitation method was found to be the best method and was used for classification of the suitability of the study area lands for wheat cultivation. The varying results of applying different ways of evaluation in this study indicate that the accuracy of the method of land evaluation adopted should be checked before using the results for any purposes.