Application of GIS and Remote Sensing Techniques in mapping spatial distribution and suitability of selected cereal crops in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Cereal crops are major dietary staples, including rice, maize, wheat, barley, sorghum, millets, oats, and rye, providing substantial dietary energy, protein, and micronutrients to much of the world's population. Cereal crops are crucial to global food production and are critical parts of the agricultural system. This paper will focus on sorghum, finger millets, and maize. They are grown in most regions of the world, such as South Africa. There is a lack of information on the region where cereal crops have been planted, the location of the farms, and the quantity of these crops produced per season. This study aims to investigate the use of GIS and remote sensing to map the spatial distribution and suitability of these crops in the Limpopo Province. Sentinel 2 images, Agriculture Research Council (ARC) data, ground spectrophotometer data, climatic and soil data from ARC and the Department of Agriculture, and spatial data from the USGS were analysed using ArcGIS Pro 3.34 and ENVI 5.6. Satellite images were classified using supervised spectral angle mapper classification, with an overall accuracy of 84.93% and a kappa of 0.82. The study revealed that maize was the dominant crop in the 2024/25 cropping season, covering 63,758.23 hectares; sorghum, 14,567.07 hectares; and finger millets, 3568.35 hectares. Significant relationships were found between the crops and humidity, temperature, organic carbon, soil water-holding capacity, soil pH, soil drainage, and rainfall, as indicated by p-values less than 0.05. Suitability results indicate that many areas are marginally suitable for maize and moderately suitable for finger millet and sorghum. These findings provide valuable information for enhancing agricultural practices, resource management, and informed decision-making in Limpopo Province.