Mapping land areas that favour fadama farming in Bosso and Environment Niger State

Abstract

Fadama lands are regarded as very rich agricultural area. They encompass land and water resources that could easily be developed for irrigation agriculture. Becaouse of the importance and scarcity of fadama land as well as the need for sustainable development, mapping of areas favourable for fadama farming is likely to be reliable step towards effective fadama farming and rural development in Bosso Local Government Area. The study uses remote sensing and GIS techniques to map out areas that are suitable for fagdama farming. SPOT 5 image of the study area , which has 5m resolution was used. Hand held GERMIN III GPS was used to pick points which were used to generate Digital Elevation Model of the study area, Arc GIS 9.2 was used to create the DEM of the study area. ILWIS 3.2 software was used to classify the SPOT5 image. The result obtained showed that areas lying below 300m above sea level along the banks of Bosso dam and in areas such as Popoi, Nini, Dyafa etc are considered favorable for fadama farming. The areas favorable # for fadama farming in the study are a covers 3690.00 hectares which is an extensive area within the area under study which covers and approximately 10503 hectares of land. It is therefore, recommended that it is important to create the soil data base and land information system, including soil types, soil fertility, terrain, current land use status, climate, slope, vegetation cover, soil erosion and land unit map.