CROP SUITABILITY EVALUATION OF ASPARAGUS (Asparagus officinalis) PRODUCTION IN BARANGAY TINAGACAN, GENERAL SANTOS CITY USING GIS

Crop suitability analysis is a method of crop evaluation, which measures the degree of appropriateness of land for a certain use. The aim of this study was to identify the suitable land for the production of asparagus (Asparagus nfficinalis) using Quantum Geographic Information System software. The study was carried out in Barangay Tinagacan, General Santos City. The main local economy in this area runs within the agriculture, but the survival growth are insignificant because some of the crops in here arc not fit for the areas condition. Such that, there is a need to identify the suitable areas for growing different crops in order to achieve greater yield. There are three major suitability criteria namely, soil (texture, pH, organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium), climate (rainfall, temperature and relative humidity) and topography (elevation and slope) that were used to evaluate the given study area with the guidelines of different agronomist experts, private and public agricultural agencies. An Analytical Hierarchical Process, method used to weigh down the parameters in order to determine the relative importance of the criterias. The weights were then used to generate the suitability map using Quantum GIS software. The results revealed that there is 160.2 hectares (6.79%) of permanently not suitable, 285.605 hectares (12.10%) of currently not suitable, 502.63 hectares (21.31%) of marginally suitable, 653.685 hectares (27.71%) of moderately suitable, 396.69 hectares (16.82%) of highly suitable for the asparagus production in the Barangay Tinagacan. There is also an excluded areas which composes 363.03 hectares (15.39%). These areas are from Purok 3, Purok 4, Purok 5, Purok 6, Purok 7, Purok 8, Purok 9, Purok 10, Purok 11, Purok 12, Purok 13, Purok 14, Purok 15, Purok 16, Purok 17, Purok 18, and Purok 20 of Barangay Tinagacan. The results can be used by the local government to advice the local farmers in the study area to engage in asparagus production