Application of Geographic Information Systems in identifying accessible sites for Jatropha curcas production in Ethiopia

Jatropha curcas L. is an oil bearing plant growing in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. This plant is considered to be a potential solution to the prevailing shortage of fossil fuel and the resulting environmental impacts. Cognizant of this, governments have given considerable attention to develop biodiesel technologies including that of jatropha. Development of biodiesel technologies has also attracted interest of national and international investors in Ethiopia. However, there is a gap of information with regard to how much land can potentially be allocated for biodiesel development. In this study, Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to identify those potential areas. Data of relevant environment factors influencing growth and productivity of jatropha such as climate, soils and topography were used for this purpose. Generally, results of overlay analysis for biophysical suitability evaluation using GIS identified 15.07 % and 76.57 % of the land as highly suitable and moderately suitable for jatropha production, respectively. The main limiting factors identified in this study are elevation, climate and water logging condition of soils. Sensitivity analysis based on land use change patterns shows that the size of suitable sites decreases significantly. Around 42 % of the suitable sites were also identified as accessible by road and railway transport systems at distances less than 20 kilometres. In general, adequate land is available for jatropha investment in the country. However, allocation of land for jatropha production should be done based on accessibility of the identified suitable sites to transport facilities. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.