Land suitability for cocoa production in Idanre, Ondo State, Nigeria

In Nigeria, cocoa is an important cash crop that contributes to wealth creation and poverty alleviation. This study combined a Geographic Information System (GIS) application and Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) to assess land suitability for cocoa cultivation.  Based on the FAO rating standard Landsat ETM (2002) and Landsat 8 (2015) images, AsterDEM data, rainfall data, soil map, and the administrative map of Idanre were processed, classified, and reclassified into four (4) suitability classes. Different weights were generated through Analytic Hierarchic Process, based on the crop requirements. The result of the GIS-MCE analysis shows that 71.34 % (1401.79533 km²) of the study area are moderately suitable, 26.48% (520.31876 km²) marginally suitable, and only 2.18% (42.83591 km²) is not suitable for cocoa production. The results shows that the major limiting factors for good cocoa production and yield were poor land use management and insufficient rainfall. Key words: Cocoa, land suitability, urbanization, satellite images, Geographic Information System (GIS), multi-criteria evaluation.