Quantitative approaches in agricultural land evaluation and determination of economic suitability classes

Today, the rapidly increasing population and the increasing human needs that come with it are becoming the main focal issues of developed and developing countries. For this reason, countries have to use the resources they have effectively and sustainably. The soil, which is at the forefront of these resources, and the lands included in production within them are put into production quite effectively in developed countries. Countries that cannot use the land that has a certain limit and is exhaustible effectively both lose their resources and have an unhealthy society accordingly. When preparing agricultural land use plans, it is important to evaluate not only the ecological demands of land use types but also their economic profitability in terms of testing the applicability of the created plans. With this study, the profitability indices of the usage types whose agricultural land suitability classes have been determined in a total of 11086 ha of land within the borders of Vezirköprü district of Samsun province were calculated by taking into account the economic indicators. In the study where Geographic Information System technologies were used effectively, distribution maps of the selected plant species were created. According to the results of the study, it was determined that the products that can be grown economically in the area where pressurized irrigation systems are used effectively, are sugar beet as an industrial plant, tomato as a vegetable, and walnut as a fruit tree.