The assessment of Mali soil resources for the purposes of cotton cultivation

In this work we summarized all of the available information about the soil cover of Mali at the level of the whole country. This information was updated according to the satellite data, and the analysis of optimality of the soil resources for the purposes of cotton cultivation was conducted. As the basis for the assessment served the Digital Soil Map of the World by FAO, which was preliminary corrected on the basis of visual analysis of Landsat images. We determined the soil properties, which potentially may constrain the possibilities of industrial crop cultivation by expertise. Also we discovered the threshold values of suitability classes. The analysis of suitability of Mali soils for cotton cultivation, conducted with using of GIS ILWIS, showed that only 6% of country’s soils on the territory of the republic are optimal for cotton cultivation. About 67% of soils are not suitable for cotton cultivation. Among them, 60% of soils have unfavorable characteristics. The rest of the soils are limitedly suitable. As the major limiting factors for cotton cultivation we considered light grain texture of the soils, low thickness and rockiness. The limitations of about 80% of unfavorable soils of Mali are precicely due to these properties. The resource potential of these soils is maximally used in regions of Kulicoro and Sicasso; in lower degree it is used in regions of Segu and Kayes, and in the other regions it is not used at all.