Relation of wheat yield with parameters derived from a spectral growth profile

An attempt has been made to generate crop growth profiles using multi-date NOAA AVHRR data of wheat-growing season of 1987–88 for the districts of Punjab and Haryana states of India. A profile model proposed by Badhwar was fitted to the multi-date Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values obtained from geographically referenced samples in each district. A novel approach of deriving a set of physiologically meaningful profile parameters has been outlined and the relation of these parameters with district wheat yields has been studied in order to examine the potential of growth profiles for crop-yield modelling. The parameter ‘area under the profile’ is found to be the best estimator of yield. However, with such a parameter time available for prediction gets reduced. Combination of different profile parameters shows improvement in correlation but lacks the consistency for individual state data.