Multiple Criteria Analysis for Site Suitability of Rice Yields in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand

Abstract

Southeast Asian countries takes rice as one of their necessary food intake to survive for a day. With a booming population of the third world countries, the need for higher production of rice was sought as one of the priorities of the countries like Thailand to identify areas which are deemed suitable for rice production. Thailand is one of the prominent exporter of rice in the whole world and it is important that Prachuap Khiri khan can go with trends of identifying areas for good rice production that would therefore contribute for the economic improvement of its very own districts up to its own country Thailand. This study aims to identify the suitable areas for good rice production in the province of Prachuap Khirikhan. Factors such as slope, aspect, elevation, land use, road proximity, stream network and rainfall were considered to identify the suitable site for good rice yields. The spatial analysis of ArcGIS software was used in the generation of the different maps. Results shows that the southern portion of the province has a very high suitability of rice production, while the Northwestern portion of the province shows the very low suitability of rice production.