A GIS- Based Approach on Annual Tractor Use, Soil Type and Crop Pattern Interactions in Some Provinces of the Aegean Region

Abstract

The objective of this study was to provide the basic data related to the tractor such as power ratios and annual use along with the production pattern, type of farms, farm size and their fragmentation, soil properties. In order to meet the above objective a survey study was conducted in 2013 in four provinces of the Aegean region namely Aydın, Denizli, İzmir and Manisa.Using a GPS device, the coordinates of the location of the agricultural lands were also found in order to analyze the data for further evaluation and GeoMedia Professional 6.0 CBS software. The results from the study indicated that the annual use of tractors is about 650 hours and the surveyed land is a typical example and resembles the whole country in terms of average land size and fragmented land structure. The total land owned by 305 farmers was calculated to be 4023.1 ha and each farmer has 7.47 ha land. On the other hand, the average parcel size was found to be 0.86 ha. The distance between the parcels ranged between 0.5-10 km mostly while %12 of the lands was out of this range.

Keywords

• tractor power
• land use
• crop production
• great soil types
• farming systems