NRSC - Factsheet A - 01 (Jan, 2014)

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National Remote Sensing Centre

Agriculture
Agricultural resources are the important renewable dynamic natural resources. Accurate crop acreage
and production estimates and crop condition assessment help in making strategic decisions towards
achieving food security.
Crop Acreage Estimation
Well-planned programmes for crop acreage and production forecasts like Crop Acreage and Production
Estimation (CAPE) and Forecasting Agricultural Output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based
Observations (FASAL) culminated in the establishment of a dedicated Mahalanobis National Crop
Forecasting Centre (MNCFC) by Ministry of Agriculture (GoI), for crop inventorying and drought
assessment. Crops covered are rice, wheat, cotton, mustard, sugarcane, etc.
Geo-spatial technologies, in combination with modern tools like crop simulation modelling, have the
capability to generate the requisite information for crop monitoring, which form a vital input for the
decision makers at different levels. IRS satellite-derived and model-generated vegetation indices, rainfall
(amount and number of rainy days) and soil data were integrated and the overall crop prospects
information at monthly interval was generated.
Rabi Crop Prospects Mapping Bharatpur District, Rajasthan

Dec 2012

Jan 2013

Feb 2013

0.7
NDWI
0.6
DT
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
-0.1 Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
14

TEMP

NDWI

NDWI and Diurnal Temperature

Progression of Wheat

Fortnight

Mar 2013

NDVI Progression of
Wheat and Mustard Crops
0.6

NDVI

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
RCA - 2,23,136 ha

RCA - 3,44,974 ha

Rabi Cropped Area (RCA)

RCA 3,46,711 ha

Mustard

Wheat - 1,26,079 ha
Mustard - 2,06,403 ha

Wheat

0.1

Wheat
Mustard

0
Oct-12 Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13

National Remote Sensing Centre

Discrimination of Rice crop from RISAT-1 Hybrid Polarimetric Data

ISROs indigenous active microwave satellite RISAT-1 provides unique hybrid polarimetric SAR (RH,RV)
data in FRS-1 mode. A study of the potential application of this data for rice crop estimation was done in
Achanta mandal of West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. The data corresponding to reproductive stage
of the rice crop was analyzed. The data was subjected to Raney hybrid polarimetric decomposition to
understand the contribution of various backscattering mechanisms in the rice crop. The decomposition
parameters were subjected to supervised minimum distance classification for rice crop discrimination.
RH,RV Intensity data

Raney decomposition

Classified map (RISAT-1)

Volume
Odd
Double

RICE (3907 ha)

Achanta
mandal

DOP:25-Mar-2013

RH RV RH

Resourcesat-2 (LISS-IV)

Methodology

Classified map (LISS-IV)

RISAT-1 Hybrid
Polarimetric
data (RH,RV)

Speckle
filtering

Resourcesat-2
LISS- IV data

Hybrid Polarimetric
Decomposition
(Raney m-, m-)

Classification

Classification

11-Apr-2013

RICE (3833 ha)

A comparison was made with spatial distribution of rice crop

derived from in-season Resourcesat-2 LISS-IV data. The extent of
agreement in spatial distribution was observed to be 85%. The
commission error in RISAT-1 data was observed due to similar
scattering mechanisms from plantations and peripheries of
settlements.

Comparison

The study has shown the potential of single date FRS-1 hybrid
polarimetric data for rice crop discrimination.
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