Abstract:

As a characteristic agricultural industry of Qinling-Daba Mountains, tea planting is the pillar industry for local rural revitalization. A comprehensive evaluation of the suitability of tea planting in the Qinling-Daba Mountains is an important basis for promoting the planning and layout of the tea industry in the area. In this study, by combining tea tree growth factors and eight indicators from three major influencing factors of climate, soil and topography, and applying analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to establish an evaluation system of each indicator, we conducted spatial analysis of each factor in the Qinling-Daba Mountains through GIS technology, and finally came up with the most suitable area, suitable area, sub-suitable area and unsuitable area for tea planting, thus realizing the overall evaluation of tea tree planting. The results showed that the area of the most suitable tea planting area accounted for about 4.78% of the total evaluated areas, mainly distributed in Xuanhan County, Wanyuan City, Tongjiang County, Nanjiang County, Chenggu County, Xixiang County, Yunyang County, and Lizhou District. The suitable tea planting area accounted for about 13.05% of the total, mainly distributed in Fengjie County, Danjiangkou City, Qingchuan County, and Wangcang County, which were concentrated in the south of the Qinling Mountains. The spatial distribution of suitable areas for tea planting in the Qinling-Daba Mountains is more obvious, so we should avoid blind expansion to enhance the development of tea industry in Qinling-Daba Mountains by rational planning.

Key words: suitability evaluation, tea tree, analytic hierarchy process, GIS spatial analysis, Qinling-Daba Mountains