Assessment of Land Resources Potentials for Orientation of Agriculture Land Use in Ham Thuan Bac district, Binh Thuan province

1 
 Soil types (FAO/Vietnam) 
1 ARl / Cc G01 N N N N 3 2 3 N N N N 
2 ARg / Cg G02 3 N N N N 2 N N N N N 
3 SCh / Mn G03 N N N N N N N N N N N 
4 FLe / P G04 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 N N N 1 
5 FLb / Pf G05 2 2 3 2 2 3 1 N N N 1 
6 Flu / Py G06 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 N N N 1 
7 AC / Xa G07 3 2 3 3 1 3 1 2 3 3 N 
8 ACg / Xg G08 2 N N N 3 N 3 3 N N 2 
9 FRx / Fa G09 N 3 2 3 1 3 1 2 3 3 3 
10 NTr / Fk G10 N 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 
11 FRp / Fl G11 3 2 N N 2 3 N N N 3 N 
12 FRx / Fp G12 N 3 2 3 1 2 1 1 2 3 2 
13 FRx / Fs G13 N 3 1 2 2 3 2 3 2 2 2 
14 NTh / Ft G14 N 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 
15 Fru / Ha G15 N 3 3 N 2 2 N N N 3 N 
16 FLe / D G16 3 2 N N 1 3 2 N N N N 
17 LPq / E G17 N N N N N N N N N N N 
 Slope 
I < 3⁰ SL1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 
II 3 - 8⁰ SL2 N 1 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 2 1 
III 8 - 15⁰ SL3 N 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 2 
IV 15 - 20⁰ SL4 N 3 3 N 3 N N 2 2 N 2 
V 20 - 25⁰ SL5 N 3 3 N N N N 3 3 N 3 
VI > 25⁰ SL6 N N N N N N N N N N N 
 Soil thickness 
1 > 100cm D1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 
2 100 - 70cm D2 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 3 3 3 3 
3 70 - 50cm D3 2 2 2 3 2 2 3 N N N N 
4 50 - 30cm D4 3 3 3 N 3 3 N N N N N 
5 < 30cm D5 N N N N N N N N N N N 
 Eroded soil E N N N N N N N N N N N 
 Soil texture 
 Eroded soil E N N N N N N N N N N N 
1 Light texture T1 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 2 2 3 2 
2 Medium texture T2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 
3 Heavy texture T3 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 
 Irrigation 
1 Rainfed I1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 
2 Semi-active I2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 
3 Active I3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 
Note: LUTs: 1 - Rice, 2 - Maize, 3 - Cassava & sweet potato, 4 - Sugar cane, 5 - Grass for livestock, 6 - Other cash crops, 7 - 
Dragon fruit, 8 - Cashew, 9 - Rubber, 10 - Coffee, 11 - Other fruit trees 
Land suitability levels: 1 - S1 (High suitability), 2 - S2 (Moderate suitability), 3 - S3 (Marginal suitability), and N (Not suitability). 
Source: MARD (2008) and consultations with experts.
Assessment of land resources potentials for orientation of agriculture land use in Ham Thuan Bac district, Binh Thuan 
826 Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences 
the land with S3 and N levels in which the 
unsuitable land area was 65.13%, 44.47%, 
85.61%, and 75.42%, respectively (in the total 
area of these LUTs). 
The orientation of agricultural land use 
According to survey results and statistics 
(Department of Agriculture and Rural 
Development of Ham Thuan Bac district, 2017; 
2018), the actual cultivated areas of LUTs were 
much different from LUTs under the land use 
plan in 2017 (Table 5). 
Currently, the area of rice cultivated was 
from 8,515 to 9,232ha depending on the season, 
whereas the cultivated rice area under the land-
use plan in the district was 12,588.97ha, land-use 
efficiency was about 73%. The same was 
observed in all LUTs in the district. The reason 
for its difference is that Not suitability (N) or 
Marginal suitability (S3) occupied a majority of 
 Table 3. LUTs and land suitability potential of agricultural land in Ham Thuan Bac 
No. LUTs Notation 
Suitability levels (ha) 
Total area 
(ha) 
S1 S2 S3 N 
1 Rice LUC 1487.49 1075.24 26757.20 31806.17 61,126.09 
2 Maize CHN 1487.49 14143.29 34165.17 11330.15 61,126.09 
3 
Cassava and sweet 
potato 
CHN - 9399.02 39872.98 11854.09 61,126.09 
4 Sugar cane CHN 8.58 2,419.33 43320.63 15377.54 61,126.09 
5 Grass for livestock CHN 152.81 33540.54 20752.83 6679.91 61,126.09 
6 Other cash crops CHN 419.93 9385.49 44740.94 6579.72 61,126.09 
7 Dragon fruit CLN 1579.53 28266.76 22200.08 9079.72 61,126.09 
8 Cashew CLN - 6299.06 19265.92 35561.12 61,126.09 
9 Rubber CLN - 2557.13 22849.49 35719.47 61,126.09 
10 Coffee CLN - - 26146.86 34979.23 61,126.09 
11 Other fruit trees CLN 1579.53 14324.95 6621.59 38600.02 61,126.09 
 Table 4. Land suitability classification for current agriculture land use in Ham Thuan Bac 
No. LUT Notation 
Current area 
(ha) 
Current suitability level (ha) 
S1 S2 S3 N 
1 Rice LUC 12,588.97 700.19 427.49 8,529.07 2,932.22 
2 Maize CHN 2,372.07 74.55 325.95 1,848.85 122.71 
3 Cassava & sweet potato CHN 3,070.56 102.41 2,455.73 512.42 
4 Sugar cane CHN 497.91 7.04 486.09 4.78 
5 Grass for livestock CHN 3.69 3.69 
6 Other cash crops CHN 5,696.45 31.00 1,389.46 4,166.07 109.91 
7 Dragon fruit CLN 19,352.71 694.67 15,150.11 2,455.06 1,052.88 
8 Cashew CLN 3,507.57 1,222.95 2,284.61 
9 Rubber CLN 1,887.19 1,048.06 839.14 
10 Coffee CLN 152.86 22.00 130.86 
11 Other fruit trees CLN 11,996.11 112.94 2,835.29 9,047.87 
Total agricultural land 61,126.09 
Nguyen Huu Thanh et al. (2020) 
https://vjas.vnua.edu.vn/ 827 
(a) (b) 
Figure 4. The current status map of agricultural land use in 2017 (a) and Map of land suitability classification for current agricultural 
land-use (b) of Ham Thuan Bac district 
Figure 5. Land adaptation map (or land potential)
Assessment of land resources potentials for orientation of agriculture land use in Ham Thuan Bac district, Binh Thuan 
828 Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences 
 Table 5. The actual cultivated area in 2017 and 2018 in Ham Thuan Bac district 
No. LUT Area (ha) 
Actual cultivated area (ha) 
Winter-spring Summer-autumn Autumn 
16-17 17-18 2017 2018 2017 2018 
1 Rice 12,588.97 8,515.0 8,545.0 9,171.0 9,000.0 9,323.0 9,079.0 
2 Maize 2,372.07 75.5 68.0 528.0 619.0 1,327.0 1,526.0 
3 
Cassava and sweet 
potato 
3,070.56 9.5 10.0 1,086.0 1,148.0 44.0 10.0 
4 Sugar cane 497.91 269.0 164.0 1,552.0 1,403.0 39.0 41.0 
5 Grass for livestock 3.69 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 
6 Other cash crops 5,696.45 1,031.0 797.5 1247 1,410.0 1,134.0 1,438.0 
7 Dragon fruit 19,352.71 9,000.0 9,071.7 
8 Cashew 3,507.57 1,365.0 1,728.0 
9 Rubber 1,887.19 1,531.0 1,531.0 
10 Coffee 152.86 1,550.0 1,634.0 
11 Other fruit trees 11,996.11 858.0 1,300.0 
the land area (Table 4). The district was not able 
to effectively use the land resources potentials if 
the limiting factors such as irrigation and shifting 
crop structure to adapt to water shortage 
conditions were not improved. Besides, the 
general limitation of the region was drought in 
the dry season (November to April), 
corresponding to winter-spring and early 
summer-autumn seasons. 
Hence, to meet the requirements of 
sustainable land use to land use sustainable we 
proposed to: (i) Maintain the land areas which 
have High suitability (S1) and Moderate 
suitability (S2) levels; (ii) Renovate or convert to 
other suitable plants/afforestation for Marginal 
suitable (S3) land areas; and (iii) Convert to 
afforestation or use plants that could improve soil 
quality of the Not Suitable (N) land areas. 
Thus, based on the actual land use in Ham 
Thuan Bac district, we proposed to keep stable 
rice cultivation in the area of 8550ha (including 
1,127.68ha of rice under S1 and S2 suitability 
levels and 7,422.32ha rice under S3 suitability 
level) due to light soil texture (S3) but with active 
irrigation regime. The remaining area should be 
converted to other annual crops including rice 
area with remaining S3 and N suitability levels 
(due to yellowish-red soil). More importantly, 
due to the consumption market, the actual 
cultivated area of dragon fruit was only 9,000ha, 
which was much lower than the approved land 
use plan (19,352.71ha) of the district. Therefore, 
for this LUT, we recommend cultivating dragon 
fruit under the S1 suitability level (694.67ha) and 
approximately 8,377.03ha under the S2 
suitability level. The proposal of dragon fruit 
(6,773.08 ha) under the district’s plan should be 
shifted to annual crops, other fruit trees (mango 
and grapefruit, etc.), and grass for livestock. In 
terms of the perennial crop, the majority were 
cultivated under Suitability level (S3) and Not 
suitability level (N); therefore, we propose 
keeping these crops growing under S3, and the 
remaining area (12,302.49ha) under N level 
should be converted to afforestation and soil 
improvement plants. 
Conclusions 
The analytical procedures developed in the 
five specific steps for assessing land suitability 
were used to develop an effective use of 
agricultural land in Ham Thuan Bac district, 
which had an area of 61126.09ha agricultural 
land and unused land with 11 common land-use 
types, with rice (21% of total agricultural land) 
and dragon fruit (32%) as the two main crops. 
Two important groups of land attributes for land 
suitability analysis including inherent qualities of 
Nguyen Huu Thanh et al. (2020) 
https://vjas.vnua.edu.vn/ 829 
soils (soil attributes) and external characteristics 
(topographic elements, and management) were 
used. Soil attributes included three factors: soil-
type consisting of 17 soil types (in 8 soil groups), 
soil thickness consisting of 6 levels, and soil 
texture consisting of 4 levels. Slope 
characteristics consisting of 6 levels. The 
management characteristic is irrigation 
consisting of 3 regimes. 
As a result of land mapping, based on the 
land characteristics, 107 LMUs were obtained 
over the entire agricultural and unused land of the 
study area. The majority belonged to Ferralsols 
(FA) groups (53 LMUs - 52.24%), followed by 
Acrisols (AC) (17 LMUs - 18.51%), Fluvisols 
(FL) (18 LMUs - 12.37%), Arenosols (AR) (6 
LUMs - 10.15%), and the rest are other soil 
groups. The combination between characteristics 
of 107 LMUs and land use requirements were 
employed to evaluate current land use in the 
study area from suitable (S1, S2, and S3) to not 
suitable (N). The land area of LUTs of annual 
crops was mainly found at the S3 suitability 
level, where, for the current cultivated rice area, 
23.29% of the area was unsuitable (N), and 
67.75% was marginally suitable (S3). 
Meanwhile in terms of perennial trees, except for 
dragon fruits which were mainly cultivated at the 
S2 suitability level (78.28%), the other perennial 
LUTs (cashew, rubber, coffee, and other fruit 
trees) were cultivated with S3 and N levels, in 
which, the unsuitable land area was 65.13%, 
44.47%, 85.61%, and 75.42%, respectively (in 
the total area of these LUTs). 
To meet the requirements of sustainable land 
use, the following orientations have been 
proposed: (i) maintain the land areas which have 
High suitability (S1) and Moderate suitability 
(S2) levels; (ii) renovate or convert to other 
suitable plants/afforestation for Marginal 
suitable (S3) land areas; and (iii) convert to 
afforestation or use plants can improve soil 
quality for Not suitable (N) land areas. Therefore, 
for mainstay LUTs, the suggestions are to keep 
8,550 hectares of land for rice with land 
suitability of S1, S2, and a part of the S3 levels 
which can be irrigated; To fit market demand, it 
is recommended to cultivate dragon fruit under 
the S1 suitability level (694.67ha) and 
approximately 8,377.03ha under the S2 
suitability level; and the remaining areas, with S3 
and N suitability levels for rice; and S2, S3, or N 
levels for dragon fruit, will be converted to other 
annual crops, other fruit trees, or grass for 
livestock. 
Acknowledgments 
We would like to express our sincere thanks 
to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural 
Development (MARD) in Vietnam for funding 
this research. We also want to thank the 
Department of Agriculture and Rural 
Development and the Department of Natural 
Resources and Environment in Ham Thuan Bac 
district for providing information on land use 
planning, crop calendar, and irrigation practices. 
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