1. INTRODUCTION:
The world’s growing population is accountable for a slew of issues. It puts more pressure on natural resources, especially water and land/soil resources. Land resources are first and foremost in ensuring people’s food security. The supply of agricultural land per capita is decreasing as the world’s population grows. In the 2011-12 financial year, India’s arable land was roughly 182 million ha, with 0.15 ha per capita. (Sharma, 2015). This situation necessitates a broad understanding of additional land use options and the identification of suitable land for all crops in order to achieve long-term agricultural growth.For the rural economy and agriculture growth, natural and agricultural resources, as well as their management are critical (Bhaskar et al, 2016; FAO, 2016). Evaluation of soil and land resources especially the methods of soil capability, land/ site suitability (M.Z. Salem et. al 2008, Jadab Chandra Halder, 2013),land productivity (Dnyaneshwar N Pawar, 2013, 2015), crop suitability (D. M. Thapa, C.P. Shrivastav, S.C. Shah, K. Sah, 2020; Chiranjit Singha and Kishore Swain, 2016; Hegade et al, 2018; Dnyaneshwar N Pawar et al 2019), Crop management practices (Suhas P. et. al, 2017), agriculture suitability (RanyaElsheikhet al, 2013) are significant to increasing the production of crops to meet the needs of the growing population. (Dnyaneshwar N. Pawar, 2013, 2015). Finding the best feasible places for cropping and boosting productivity (Pan and Pan, 2012) and potential utilization of land resources is an important part of crop soil site selection.
The current study used the National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning’s soil site suitability analysis of grapes production methodology approach (Naidu et al., 2006). In the evaluation and management of lands and soils, geoinformatics technology is quite useful (Pawar D.N., 2013, 2015; Pawar and Tatar, 2019; Gahlod et al., 2017) GIS and remote sensing techniques are appropriate for digital mapping and soil resource evaluation (Eric and Abrefa, 2011; Pawar and Gaikwad, 2013; Abdollah Pirbalouti, 2009; Pable et al., 2017; Zolekar et al., 2018). With a comprehensive soil survey database, the current study attempted to apply the Geoinformatics technique in the assessment of soil site suitability. (See Figure 2) The characterization of agricultural farmland and productivity should be the initial step in drought management. (FAO, 2016)