Suitability Maps for Identification of Alternative Crops.
(A03-hollinger405096-oral)
Authors:
C.R. Bowen* - University of Illinois S.E. Hollinger - Illinois State Water Survey
Abstract:
Alternative crops in farming systems have the potential to provide the diversification needed to combat the financial stress caused by an overabundant supply of a limited number of crops grown over a broad area. The objective of this work was to develop a simple model linked to geographic information system (GIS) software that could be used to screen a large number of crops over a large geographic region. The goal was to identify where soil and climate conditions might be suitable for different crops.
Maps were created for 414 crops, a subset of 968 candidate crops, for which soil (texture, pH, drainage) and climate (temperature, precipitation, growing season length, minimum winter temperature) requirements were identified for each crop. The GIS referenced model was used to evaluate the suitability of the soil and climate conditions of Illinois for each of the 414 crops. Three of the 414 crops were classified as highly suitable in more than 50 percent of the 2,442 county-soil polygons. Thirteen crops were classified as suitable in more than 90 percent of the polygons. Combining the number of polygons rated as either suitable or highly suitable for each crop resulted in the identification of 77 crops with more than 90 percent of the polygons classified as suitable or highly suitable. Application of this tool to a limited area demonstrated the utility of the tool, and suggests that it can be applied to the North Central Reigon of the U.S.
Speaker Information: Steven Hollinger, Illinois State Water Survey, 2204 Griffith Drive, Champaign, IL 61820; Phone: 217-244-2939; E-mail: [email protected]
Session Information: Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 7:40 AM-11:15 AM Presentation Start: 10:30 AM