LAND SUITABILITY ANALYSIS FOR PINEAPPLE CULTIVATION IN KIAMBU COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Driven by dwindling incomes from coffee and tea and the need to diversify their sources of income, farmers in Kiambu County are increasingly shifting to pineapple cultivation in areas formerly dominated by coffee and tea cultivation. However, not all areas in the County are suitable for pineapple production due to spatial variability of factors affecting growth (climate, soils, topography). There is therefore a need to identify and delineate suitable areas for growing pineapples in the County. Land suitability assessment for pineapple production in Kiambu County was carried out by a combination of GIS and the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) model. Using GIS, thematic maps of all factors affecting pineapple growth (soil, climate and topography) were developed showing their spatial variability within the county. The maps (of factors affectinggrowth) were assessed against the published optimum parameter value ranges for pineapple cultivation. AHP was used to assign ratings/weights (of importance) of the thematic layers inregard to pineapple production. The land suitability map was developed from a weighted overlay of the thematic layers in ArcGIS. The map was categorized into four classes based on pineapple cultivation's suitability; highly suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable, and not suitable. From the results, 38% of the (Kiambu) County is highly suitable for pineapple cultivation while 5% is not suitable. The rest of the County is moderately suitable (41%) and marginally suitable (16%). We recommend the use of these findings by agricultural extension officers for the planning and guiding farmers on where to invest in pineapple production.