Soil in land suitability evaluation: an example with oil palm in Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract. The land of the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) main station in southern Nigeria was evaluated for suitability for oil palm cultivation by the FAO system using data from 12 pedons representing four soil series. The results indicate that although the climatic factors are near optimum and more than half of the pedons were potentially moderately (S2) or highly (S1) suitable, the current suitability is marginal (S3). The major limitations were soil fertility (K mole fraction, CEC) and particle size. In this and similar environments good soil management is required before substantial improvements in oil palm production can be achieved.