District wise yield models of rice in Bihar based on water requirement and meteorological data

Pre-harvest crop production forecast has been successfully provided by remote sensing technique. However, the probability to get cloud-free optical remote sensing data during kharif season is poor. Microwave data having the capability to penetrate cloud is used in the absence of cloud free optical remote sensing data. Yield models in broad band frequency range are in development stage. Meteorological yield models are developed and predicted yield is combined with area estimated by remote sensing data to provide rice production forecast. This paper describes the methodology adopted for improving the predictability of rice yield before harvest of the crop in Bihar province by taking into consideration meteorological parameters during its growth cycle upto October. Models developed using fortnightly meteorological data have been found to give reasonably fair indications of expected yield of rice in advance of harvest. The yield predictions have been made based on meteorological data and effective rainfall based on water requirement calculations representing a group of districts under similar agro-climatic zones, which could be further improved by incorporating meteorological data of individual districts within each group.     

District-level rice-yield estimation for Orissa using satellite data

Remotely-sensed data transformed into a vegetation index (radiance ratio of near infrared to red) has been related to district rice yields for Orissa using IRS-1A LISS-I data of kharif seasons 1988–89 and 1989–90. Using the empirical relation of the first year, estimation of rice yield has been done for the 1989–90 kharif season. Deviations in the districts of coastal tract and central tableland ranged from 1.9 to 11.1 percent whereas deviations were larger in Eastern Ghat and Northern plateau of Orissa.     

Rice-acreage estimation for Orrisa using remotely sensed data

Rice is one of the most important foodgrains grown in India. Attempts have been made to estimate kharif rice acreage of Orissa state since 1986 using digital remote sensing data from Landsat MSS/TM and/or IRS-1A. Accuracies of the estimates obtained have been evaluated against BES (Bureau of Economics and Statistics) estimate. This paper describes the methodology adopted for rice acreage estimation of Orissa state, the results obtained for three years, i.e. 1986–87, 1988–89 and 1989–90, and their accuracy.     

District-level mustard crop estimation for rajasthan: improving precision by in-season digital stratification

The acreage and yield of mustard crop in Rajasthan shows year to year variation. In the present study CAPE, analysis by incorporating digital stratification with current season data and comparison of coefficient variation (CV) at district level using conventional stratification with previous season data was undertaken. The stratification approach using current year’s data for mustard acreage estimation was adopted during 1994-95 and 1995-96 crop seasons and regional CV of less than 2 per cent was attained. A comparison of CV at district level for the years 1994-95 and 1995-96 with those obtained in previous two seasons (1992-93, 1993-94) indicated considerable improvement in precision (lower CV) is 7 out of 11 study districts. Mustard acreage estimate for Bharatpur (1995-96) had CV of 10.1 percent when conventional approach (past year data) for stratification was used. However, with the use of current year data for stratification CV reduced to 4.4 per cent The study suggests that use of in-season data for stratification improves precision for acreage estimation of crops like mustard which has high year to year variation in area.     

Development and validation of spectrometeorological yield models of mustard oil seed crop in Rajasthan state

Attempt has been made to develop spectro meteorological yield models using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from NOAA AVHRR data over the crop growth period and monthly rainfall data for predicting yield of mustard crop. The AVHRR data spanning seven crop growing seasons, the rain gauze station-level rainfall data and crop yield data determined from crop cutting experiments (CCE) conducted by state Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES) are the basic input data. A methodology has been developed to normalize the multi-temporal NDVIs for the minimisation of atmospheric effects, which is found to reduce the noise in NDVI due to varying atmospheric conditions from season to season and improve the predictability of statistical multiple linear regression yield models developed for nine geographically large districts of Rajasthan state. The spectro meteorological yield models had been validated by comparing the predicted district level yields with those estimated from the crop cutting experiments.     

Agrometeorological rice yield modelling in Karnal

District-level Agromet rice yield model was developed using rice yields of past fourteen years (1981–1994) and meteorological data such as minimum-maximum temperature and sunshine hours in the Karnal district of Haryana state. The Growing Degree Days (GDD), Temperature Difference (TD) and Accumulated Sunshine hours (ASH) were calculated and integrated over three different crop growth phases to study their influence on district-level rice yield. The three growth phases considered for analysis were Active Vegetative Phase (AVP), Reproductive Phase (RP) and Maturity Phase (MP). A two step linear statistical technique was adopted for multiple linear regression analysis. In the first step, best possible subset of independent variables were selected by leaps and bounds technique. In the second step, the multiple regression for each selected subset were carried out and variance, regression coefficients and residuals were computed. The selected subset of independent variables constitute TD at AVP and RP, GDD at RP and ASH at AVP and RP, which resulted in best multiple regression model with R² 0.842 and SEOE 0.663. This model explains about 84 per cent variability in the district-level rice yields. The model predicted 2.537 t ha^?1 rice yield for the kharif 1995 season.     

Use of spectral data in Markov chain model for crop yield forecasting

Crop yield is mainly dependent on weather, soil and technological inputs. Yield forecasting models have been developed mainly using multiple regression techniques based on biometrical characters of the plants and/or weather parameters. Matiset al. (1985) proposed another approach of crop yield modelling using Markov Chain theory based on biometrical characters. The integration of remote sensing with other technologies has provided an immense scope to improve upon the existing crop yield models. In the present study, multi date spectral data during crop growth period was used in Markov Chain Model to forecast wheat yield. The results indicate that the use of spectral data near the maximum vegetative growth of wheat crop improves the efficiency and reliability of yield forecast about a month before its actual harvest.     

In-season time series analysis of Resourcesat-1 AWiFS data for estimating irrigation water requirement

AWiFS sensor on board IRS-P6 (Resourcesat-1), with its unique features—wide swath and 5-day revisit capability provides excellent opportunities to carry out in-season analysis of irrigated agriculture. The study carried out in Hirakud command area, Orissa State indicated that the progression of rice crop acreage could be mapped through analysis of time series AWiFS data set. The spectral emergence pattern of rice crop was found useful to identify the period of rice transplantation and its variability across the command area. This information, integrated with agro-meteorological data, was used to quantify 10-daily canal-wise irrigation water requirement. A comparison with field measured actual irrigation supplies indicated an overall supply adequacy of 88% and showed wide variability at lateral canal level ranging between 18% and 109%. The supply pattern also did not correspond with the chronological variations associated with crop water requirement, supplies were 15% excess during initial part of season (December and January) and were 20.1% deficit during later part of season (February to April). Rescheduling the excess supplies of the initial period could have reduced the deficit to 15% during peak season. The study has demonstrated the usefulness of AWiFS data to generate the irrigation water requirement by mid-season, subsequent to which 38% supplies were yet to be allocated. This would support the irrigation managers to reschedule the irrigation water supplies to achieve better synchronization between requirement and supply leading to improved water use efficiency.     

水稻时域散射特征分析及其应用研究

通过对肇庆试验区1996年和1997年获取的多时相、多模式雷达卫星（RADARSAT）数据分析,从图像上直接提取地物的后向散射系数,结合实地测量水稻的生长结构参数,建立了水稻生长模型,分析了不同生长周期（从80天到120－125天）4种类型水稻的时域散射特性。利用1997年4月至7月获取的7景标准模式雷达卫星数据,对试验区内三个县和两个行政区共5000km^2面积范围内的作物进行分类和水稻产量预估算,水稻类型分类及面积量算精度达91％。结果表明：利用雷达遥感数据进行水稻种植面积量算和估产需要水稻生长期间三个时相的数据,即插秧期、抽穗期、收割前期。若能够获得多参数雷达图像,可以用插秧期和收割前期的两个时相图像来代替上述的三个时相图像同样可以达到种植面积量算和估产的效果。这一结果充分说明多时相雷达卫星数据对我国南方水稻长势监测及估产具有明显优势和潜力。     

水稻时域散射特征分析及其应用研究

通过对肇庆试验区1996年和1997年获取的多时相、多模式雷达卫星（RADARSAT）数据分析，从图像上直接提取地物的后向散射系数，结合实地测量水稻的生长结构参数，建立了水稻生长模型，分析了不同生长周期（从80天到120－125天）4种类型水稻的时域散射特性。利用1997年4月至7月获取的7景标准模式雷达卫星数据，对试验区内三个县和两个行政区共5000km^2面积范围内的作物进行分类和水稻产量预估算，水稻类型分类及面积量算精度达91％。结果表明：利用雷达遥感数据进行水稻种植面积量算和估产需要水稻生长期间三个时相的数据，即插秧期、抽穗期、收割前期。若能够获得多参数雷达图像，可以用插秧期和收割前期的两个时相图像来代替上述的三个时相图像同样可以达到种植面积量算和估产的效果。这一结果充分说明多时相雷达卫星数据对我国南方水稻长势监测及估产具有明显优势和潜力。     

Agricultural Area Diversification and Crop Water Demand Analysis: A Remote Sensing and GIS Approach

Large scale adoption of input intensive rice–wheat cropping system in the centrally located Jalandhar district of Indian Punjab has led to over-exploitation of ground water resources, intensive use of chemical fertilizers and deterioration of soil health. To overcome these shortfalls, in the present study, agricultural area diversification plan has been generated from agricultural area and crop rotation maps derived from remote sensing data (IRS P6-AWiFS and RADARSAT ScanSAR) along with few agro-physical parameters in GIS environment. Cropping system indices (area diversity, multiple cropping and cultivated land utilization) were also worked out from remote sensing data .Analysis of remote sensing data (2004–05) revealed that rice and wheat individually remained the dominant crops, occupy 57.8% and 64.9% of total agricultural area (TAA), respectively. Therefore, in the diversified plan, it is suggested that at least 39% of the current 40% TAA under rice–wheat rotation should be replaced by other low water requiring, high value and soil enriching crops, particularly in coarse textured alluvial plain having good quality ground water zones with low annual rainfall(<700 mm). This will reduce water requirement to the tune of 15,660 cm depth while stabilizing the production and profitability by crop area diversification without further degradation of natural resources.     

Analysis of temporal sar and optical data for rice mapping

This study investigates the potential of multi-temporal signature analysis of satellite imagery to map rice area in South 24 Paraganas district of West Bengal. Two optical data (IRS ID LISS III) and three RADARSAT SAR data of different dates were acquired during 2001. Multi-temporal SAR backscatter signatures of different landcovers were incorporated into knowledge based decision rules and kharif landcover map was generated. Based on the spectral variation in signature, the optical data acquired during rabi (January) and summer (March) season were classified using supervised maximum likelihood classifier. A co-incidence matrix was generated using logical approach for a combined “rabi-summer” and “kharif-rabi-summer” landcover mapping. The major landcovers obtained in South 24 Paraganas using remote sensing data are rice, water, aquaculture ponds, homestead, mangrove, and urban area. The classification accuracy of rice area was 98.2% using SAR data. However, while generating combined “kharif-rabi-summer” landcovers, the classification accuracy of rice area was improved from 81.6% (optical data) to 96.6% (combined SAR-Optical). The primary aim of the study is to achieve better accuracy in classifying rice area using the synergy between the two kinds of remotely sensed data.     

天然草地牧草产量遥感综合监测预测模型研究

利用天然草地牧草光谱观测资料、牧草产量资料、气象资料和NOAA／AVHRR资料，建立了天然草地牧草产量光谱植被指数和卫星遥感监测模型、气监测模型，提供及时准确地掌握牧草产量变化的科学手段。建立了天然草地牧草产量遥感预测模型及气象预测模型，可以根据需要提供不同时效的卫星遥感预测结果和气象模型预测结果。气象模型精度较高，但气象站点有限，往往以点代面；遥感技术宏观性强，空间信息丰富，可以弥补气象模型的不足；两者既可以互相验证，又可以取长补短。1995年以后服务表明，这些模型达到牧业气象业务服务的要求。     

农情遥感信息与其他农情信息的对比分析

农情信息多种多样 ,来源不同 ,分散于各个部门或单位 ,缺乏相互交换与验证 ,综合分析与集成不够 ,特别是遥感信息为经济领域决策服务的渠道不通畅。为更好地应用各种信息 ,必须加强信息综合分析。对耕地面积、作物面积、作物单产、作物长势、粮食产量等几种农情信息中不同来源的信息进行了初步对比分析 ,肯定了遥感监测农情信息在客观性、时空连续性、可对比与可预测、低成本等几个方面的优势 ,同时也分析了遥感信息的不足和局限。认为遥感信息与其他信息不是互相替代的关系 ,而是互相补充、互相验证的关系。只有通过多源农情信息的综合分析和集成 ,才能更全面准确地反映农情。     

Estimating aboveground and organ biomass of plant canopies across the entire season of rice growth with terrestrial laser scanning

Non-destructive and accurate estimation of crop biomass is crucial for the quantitative diagnosis of growth status and timely prediction of grain yield. As an active remote sensing technique, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has become increasingly available in crop monitoring for its advantages in recording structural properties. Some researchers have attempted to use TLS data in the estimation of crop aboveground biomass, but only for part of the growing season. Previous studies rarely investigated the estimation of biomass for individual organs, such as the panicles in rice canopies, which led to the poor understanding of TLS technology in monitoring biomass partitioning among organs. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential of TLS in estimating the biomass for individual organs and aboveground biomass of rice and to examine the feasibility of developing universal models for the entire growing season. The field plots experiments were conducted in 2017 and 2018 and involved different nitrogen (N) rates, planting techniques and rice varieties. Three regression approaches, stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR), random forest regression (RF) and linear mixed-effects (LME) modeling, were evaluated in estimating biomass with extensive TLS and biomass data collected at multiple phenological stages of rice growth across the entire season. The models were calibrated with the 2017 dataset and validated independently with the 2018 dataset.The results demonstrated that growth stage in LME modeling was selected as the most significant random effect on rice growth among the three candidates, which were rice variety, growth stage and planting technique. The LME models grouped by growth stage exhibited higher validation accuracies for all biomass variables over the entire season to varying degrees than SMLR models and RF models. The most pronounced improvement with a LME model was obtained for panicle biomass, with an increase of 0.74 in R² (LME: R² = 0.90, SMLR: R² = 0.16) and a decrease of 1.15 t/ha in RMSE (LME: RMSE =0.79 t/ha, SMLR: RMSE =2.94 t/ha). Compared to SMLR and RF, LME modeling yielded similar estimation accuracies of aboveground biomass for pre-heading stages, but significantly higher accuracies for post-heading stages (LME: R² = 0.63, RMSE =2.27 t/ha; SMLR: R² = 0.42, RMSE =2.42 t/ha; RF: R² = 0.57, RMSE =2.80 t/ha). These findings implied that SMLR was only suitable for the estimation of biomass at pre-heading stages and LME modeling performed remarkably well across all growth stages, especially for post-heading. The results suggest coupling TLS with LME modeling is a promising approach to monitoring rice biomass at post-heading stages at high accuracy and to overcoming the saturation of canopy reflectance signals encountered in optical remote sensing. It also has great potential in the monitoring of other crops in cloud-cover conditions and the instantaneous prediction of grain yield any time before harvest.     

Agricultural drought assessment at disaggregated level using AWiFS/WiFS data of Indian Remote Sensing satellites

Spatial differences in drought proneness and intensity of drought caused by differences in cropping patterns and crop growing environments within a district indicate the need for agricultural drought assessment at disaggregated level. The objective of this study is to use moderate resolution satellite images for detailed assessment of the agricultural drought situation at different administrative units (blocks) within a district. Monthly time composite NDVI images derived from moderate resolution AWiFS (60 m) and WiFS (180 m) images from Indian Remote Sensing satellites were analysed along with ground data on rainfall and crop sown areas for the kharif seasons (June – November) of 2002 (drought year), 2004 (early season drought) and 2005 (good monsoon year). The impact of the 2002 meteorological drought on crop area in different blocks of the district was assessed. The amplitude of crop condition variability in a severe drought year (2002) and a good year (2005) was used to map the degree of vulnerability of different blocks in the district to agricultural drought. The impact of early season deficit rainfall in 2004 on the agricultural situation and subsequent recovery of the agricultural situation was clearly shown. Agricultural drought assessment at disaggregated level using moderate resolution images is useful for prioritizing the problem areas within a district to undertake, in season drought management plans, such as alternate cropping strategies, as well as for end of the season drought relief management actions. The availability of ground data on rainfall, cropping pattern, crop calendar, irrigation, soil type etc., is very crucial in order to interpret the seasonal NDVI patterns at disaggregated level for drought assessment. The SWIR band of AWiFS sensor is a potential data source for assessing surface drought at the beginning of the season.     

Wheat crop production estimation using satellite data

This paper reports acreage, yield and production forecasting of wheat crop using remote sensing and agrometeorological data for the 1998–99 rabi season. Wheat crop identification and discrimination using Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) ID LISS III satellite data was carried out by supervised maximum likelihood classification. Three types of wheat crop viz. wheat-1 (high vigour-normal sown), wheat-2 (moderate vigour-late sown) and wheat-3 (low vigour-very late sown) have been identified and discriminated from each other. Before final classification of satellite data spectral separability between classes were evaluated. For yield prediction of wheat crop spectral vegetation indices (RVI and NDVI), agrometeorological parameters (ET_max and TD) and historical crop yield (actual yield) trend analysis based linear and multiple linear regression models were developed. The estimated wheat crop area was 75928.0 ha. for the year 1998–99, which sowed ?2.59% underestimation with land record commissioners estimates. The yield prediction through vegetation index based and vegetation index with agrometeorological indices based models were 1753 kg/ha and 1754 kg/ha, respectively and have shown relative deviation of 0.17% and 0.22%, the production estimates from above models when compared with observed production show relative deviation of ?2.4% and ?2.3% underestimations, respectively.     

Results on potential use of simulated IRS-1C WiFS data for crop monitoring

Some of the basic requirements for cropping system analysis are updated information on crops grown, their phenological behaviour, method and duration of establishment and harvest, inter and intra crop variability, sequential cropping patterns. The next generation Indian Remote Sensing Satellite with high repeat cycle opens new possibility of crop surveys to derive such information. In this study, an attempt has been made to analyse cropping system at district level using simulated IRS-1C Wide Field Sensor (WiFS) data. Data acquired for nineteen dates during 1992–93 season for Bardhaman district, West Bengal has been used. It was feasible to derive accurate information on cropping pattern, crop rotation, crop duration, progress of harvest, crop growth profiles and annual crop acreage using multidate data. It was observed that even a seven to eight day interval of data acquisition during critical growth periods significantly affected classification and identification accuracy.     

Direct delivery of remote sensing data to user computer systems using satellite-based data broadcast techniques

The remote sensing applications are growing very rapidly with the availability of high-resolution data from the state of the art satellites like IRS-1C/1D/P4. The advancement in computer hardware and software in the area of remote sensing also enhance the growth of remote sensing applications. IRS-1C/1D/P4 provides data with the resolution of 5.6m in panchromatic mode giving more information of the ground area covered. The remote sensing satellites with high-resolution sensors and wide coverage capabilities will provide the data with better resolution, coverage and revisit to meet the growing application needs. Many applications like crop acreage and yield estimation, draught monitoring and assessment, flood mapping, waste land mapping, mineral prospectus, forest resource survey etc., have become an integral part of the resources management system in the developing countries. These resource management systems need the data to be transferred in real time or near real time for processing. The transfer of data in real time or near real time calls for advanced data delivery techniques to deliver the data as quickly as possible. Processing of remote sensing data can be performed even on low cost personal computers, which in turn further increases the remote sensing applications enabling by setting up the processing centers even at grass root level i.e., at district, taluk or village level. Setting up of processing centers at grass root level demands for quick, cost effective and efficient data delivery mechanism to transfer remote sensing data with or without value added services. The digital revolution has reached broadcasting with the introduction of direct broadcasting of digital data. These modify the traditional data transfer techniques by separating the actual service from the transmission system, thus enabling the distribution of any kind of digital data to stationary, portable or mobile terminals. This allows remote sensing data to reach a large number of users simultaneously and independent of their location. This article highlights the concepts, possibilities, and implementation mechanisms to realize the remote sensing data transfer through direct broadcasting technique and enhance remote sensing applications.     

Evaluation of RADARSAT Standard Beam data for identification of potato and rice crops in India

The Canadian satellite RADARSAT launched in November 1995 acquires C-band HH polarisation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data in various incident angles and spatial resolutions. In this study, the Standard Beam S7 SAR data with 45°–49° incidence angle has been used to discriminate rice and potato crops grown in the Gangetic plains of West Bengal state. Four-date data acquired in the 24-day repeat cycle between January 2 and March 15, 1997 was used to study the temporal backscatter characteristics of these crops in relation to the growth stages. Two, three and four-date data were used to classify the crops. The results show that the backscatter was the lowest during puddling of rice fields and increased as the crop growth progressed. The backscatter during this period changed from −18 dB to −8 dB. This temporal behaviour was similar to that observed in case of ERS-SAR data. The classification accuracy of rice areas was 94% using four-date data. Two-date data, one corresponding to pre-field preparation and the other corresponding to transplantation stage, resulted in 92% accuracy. The last observation is of particular interest as one may estimate the crop area as early as within 20–30 days of transplantation. Such an early estimate is not feasible using optical remote sensing data or ERS-SAR data. The backscatter of potato crop varied from −9 dB to −6 dB during the growth phase and showed large variations during early vegetative stage. Two-date data, one acquired during 40–45 days of planting and another at maturing stage, resulted in 93% classification accuracy for potato. All other combinations of two-date data resulted in less than 90% classification accuracy for potato.