An Assessment of Potential Zones for Food Security Using Vegetation Indices

Food is the basic need of man and even animals. It is essential for the growth of the body tissues and cells. Food insecurity may be cause by war, disease outbreak, poor agricultural management practice, drought, deforestation etc. Food insecurity was experienced in Ozuzu in 1995 and Egbu in 1993 all in Etche Local Government Area due to prolong dry season. The long dry season affected the production of maize, yam, cassava, etc. which are the main source of food and income in the area. This study was designed to evaluate potential zones for food security through remote sensing and GIS technology. It was carried out using Landsat 8 OLI of 2017 data and ESRI's ArcGIS 10.1 software for processing and computation of MSI and VSWI which are two vegetation indices selected for identifying potential zones for food security. The computed MSI and VSWI were reclassified into five classes ranging from very good to very poor potential zones. The results show that MSI perform optimally in identifying potential zones for food security in the study area. For the MSI, the very good potential zones ranges from 0.118 -0.170 and were located along the river banks of Otamirioche, Ogueche and Imo River, Siat palm plantation and in some isolated locations in the north. Similarly, very poor zone ranges from 0.325 -0.376 and occurred in the built-up areas mostly in the southern map location. Food insecurity menace in the study area can be address using remote sensing data and GIS software to analysis vegetation for potential zone for cultivations. For further study, more indices should be integrated in the determination of potential zones for food security.