Abstract:
This research gives an evaluation of Tana delta with regard to areas that are suitable for rice growing.
The study area lies on the Eastern delta area of the Tana river of which 16000 hectares have been
earmarked for commercial rice farming. The evaluation of land in terms of the suitability classes was
based on the method as described in FAO guideline for land evaluation for rain fed agriculture. A land
unit resulting from the overlay process of the selected theme layers has unique information of land
qualities for which the suitability was based on. The selected theme layers include landforms,
agricultural lands, soil texture, soil sodicity and salinization of the soils. Soil texture, soil sodicity, soil
salinity, were formulated using soil maps from Kenya soil survey. Landforms of the area were prepared
from Landsat TM data. Overlay operations on the layers were done on these layers according to
weighted significance of each of the factors. A land suitability rating model was developed using model
building techniques in ArcGIS. From the results of this research, a rice suitability map was prepared
identifying the various areas as four classes: most suitable, suitable, less suitable and unsuitable.
