~ 101 ~ International Journal of Chemical Studies 2018; 6(3): 101-106 P-ISSN: 2349–8528 E-ISSN: 2321–4902 IJCS 2018; 6(3): 101-106 © 2018 IJCS Received: 23-03-2018 Accepted: 25-04-2018 Chetan Kr Bhatt Department Of Agrometeorology College of Agriculture GBPUAT, Pantanagr, Uttarakhand, India AS Nain Department Of Agrometeorology College of Agriculture GBPUAT, Pantanagr, Uttarakhand, India Manoj Kr Bhatt Department Of Soil Science College of Agriculture GBPUAT, Pantanagr, Uttarakhand, India Arunima Paliwal Department Of Agronomy College of Forestry UUHF, Ranichauri, India Correspondence Chetan Kr Bhatt Department Of Agrometeorology College of Agriculture GBPUAT, Pantanagr, Uttarakhand, India Site suitability analysis for kiwi fruit plantation in Uttarakhand using GIS Chetan Kr Bhatt, AS Nain, Manoj Kr Bhatt and Arunima Paliwal Abstract The present study has been conducted to analyze the suitability of Kiwi fruit in Uttarakhand state. The study area is located between latitude 28º43’N and 31º27’N and longitude 77º34’E and 81º02’E and covers approximately 53,485 sq km. A suitability resulting from the overlay process of the identified theme layers considering the requirement of kiwi on which the suitability is based exhibits the regions where kiwi could be grown. The identified theme layers include temperature (maximum, minimum, average temperature, altitude). All thematic layers with their associated attribute data were encoded in GIS database. Overlay operation was performed on these layers through raster calculation after giving different conditions related to the kiwi fruit in Quantum GIS (2.12.0) the analysis was a result of the crop requirements and the range of input variables in the state. Calculation was applied to formulate the suitability classes. The results indicate that height ranges from 400-1100m is unsuitable, 1100-1800m is highly suitable however 1800-2500 is suitable for the plantation of kiwi fruit. On the basis of the results, it can be recommended that kiwi fruit can be grown on the larger area of Uttarakhand state, most of the area of Uttarakhand state is highly suitable for growing the kiwi except District Udham singh nagar, Haridwar, and some part of Dehradun while district Chamoli, some part of Tehri Garhwal and some part of Nainital are suitable for growing Kiwi. Keywords: Kiwi fruit, GIS, land suitability, site suitability Introduction The kiwifruit, native to northern China, was first brought to and cultivated in New Zealand at the turn of the 20th century and was then known as the Chinese Gooseberry. Kiwi is one such species on which several local level livelihoods are dependent. As a plant, Kiwi is used as a horticultural crop and also have some nutritional properties Collagen, the skins support system, is reliant on vitamin C as an essential nutrient that works in our bodies as an antioxidant to help prevent damage caused by the sun, pollution and smoke, smooth wrinkles and improve overall skin texture. The fiber and potassium in kiwis support heart health. In particular, GIS has been used extensively for spatial analysis and land suitability as GIS functions could be employed for several forms of information including point, line and area. The geospatial technology can be very efficiently used in analyzing the suitability of agricultural and horticultural crops. Geographic information systems (GIS) and geostatistics are tools that are becoming progressively more suitable in fields of research like agriculture (Basso et al. 2001) [1] . Geostatistics are statistical methodologies that use spatial coordinates to help formulate models used in estimation and prediction. The spatial information resulted from this study could be utilized the wastelands for plantation which will not only help to increased income of villages but also minimize environmental problems. Materials and Methods Study Area The area of present study has been considered the state of Uttarakhand which is surrounded by Himachal Pradesh in the north-west and Uttar Pradesh in the south and shares its international borders with Nepal and China. This area is located between latitude 28º43’N and 31º27’N and longitude 77º34’E and 81º02’E. The plan of work shows in (Fig. 1).