Sugar Tech (December 2011) 13(4):360–365
DOI 10.1007/s12355-011-0098-9
REVIEW ARTICLE
Application of GPS and GIS in Sugarcane Agriculture
C. Palaniswami • P. Gopalasundaram •
A. Bhaskaran
Received: 3 July 2011 / Accepted: 10 October 2011 / Published online: 2 November 2011
Ó Society for Sugar Research & Promotion 2011
Abstract Technology certainly plays a significant part in
the precision agriculture scheme, but understanding the
appropriateness of the different forms of technology in
response to a management problem is an essential element
for successful precision agriculture implementation. Many
of the enabling technologies discussed are at varying stages
of development with many having restricted application and
usefulness when applied at the within-paddock level.
However, these technologies can still contribute to larger-
scale forms of precision agriculture at the region, mill, farm
or paddock level. If the sugar industry decides that using
global positioning system and geographic information sys-
tem to chase the benefits of selective harvesting is poten-
tially worthwhile, sorting out the spatial and temporal
interactions between yield and CCS will be a critical
research issue. Thus the adoption of theses technologies in a
precision conservation philosophy could assist in managing
the interactions between cane farming and environmental
protection in the sensitive coastal floodplain ecosystems.
Keywords Sugarcane
GPS
GIS
Agriculture
Introduction
Agricultural management requires access to accurate and
current information (spatial and non-spatial) that helps in
planning and executing activities that lead to improvement
in the productivity of the land and input use efficiency. In
agriculture, global positioning system (GPS) and geographic
C. Palaniswami (&)
P. Gopalasundaram
A. Bhaskaran
Division of Crop Production, Sugarcane Breeding Institute,
Coimbatore 641007, Tamil Nadu, India
e-mail: palaniswami@gmail.com
123
information system (GIS) technologies have been adopted
for better management of land and other resources for sus-
tainable crop production. Acquiring spatial data in GIS
platform and remote sensing (RS) plays a major role in
information management systems. RS is an accurate, effi-
cient, economical and reliable technique to prepare a com-
prehensive inventory of the natural resources of an area.
Civil RS took birth in 1972 with the launch of LAND-
SAT-1 satellite and revealed an excellent tool for moni-
toring the bio-geo-physical processes at a regional and
global scale (Dorigo et al. 2007; Goward and Williams
1997). Subsequently, the North American Large Area Crop
Inventory Experiment (LACIE) demonstrated that remote
sensed data could assist in crop identification, estimation of
canopy properties and crop forecasting (Dorigo et al. 2007;
Moran et al. 1997). Since these early days, a plethora of
canopy state and driving variables have been investigated
using remote-sensing data with the goal of understanding
crop indicators such as photosynthesis (Clevers 1997;
Gobron et al. 2000), phenology (Everingham et al. 2007;
Karnieli 2003; Xin et al. 2002), plant function (Doraisw-
amy et al. 2004; Mo et al. 2005), plant development
(Bouman 1995; Haboudane et al. 2002), nitrogen stress
(Haboudane et al. 2002; Zhao et al. 2005), drought stress
(Hurtado et al. 1994), crop quality (Mutanga et al. 2004)
and crop yield (Mo et al. 2005). Imagery could be inte-
grated with other layers of spatial data in a GIS, with the
use of GPS receivers to locate positions of interest. Man-
agement actions can then be taken to apply corrective
measures to those zones of concern. In recent times,
commercial availability of higher resolution imagery
(0.6 m pixel) has propelled the usefulness of RS for
agronomic purposes and precision agriculture. With an
increase in bandwidth technology from blue, green, red,
near-infrared (NIR), mid-infrared (MIR) and far-infrared
Sugar Tech (December 2011) 13(4):360–365
(FIR) to the new generation hyperspectral sensors that
operate over 256 bands, an increase in information defi-
nition is possible. Historically, this level of information
could only be obtained from expensive laboratory analysis
at pointspecific locations. With the planned increase in the
number of satellites, remotely sensed data should become
cheaper, with better resolution, and have faster delivery
time. Thus RS has become a major information gathering
tool for the advancement of precision agriculture.
At the regional level, RS can play an important role in
monitoring the harvest and planting of small-scale farms
where current information is difficult to obtain (Lebour-
geois et al. 2007a). RS using the SPOT satellite system was
used to successfully update information about paddock
boundaries at a regional level and to produce thematic maps
to be integrated into a GIS package (Lebourgeois et al.
2007a). At the paddock scale, preliminary work showed the
importance of high-resolution IKNOS 1 m pixel data for
obtaining good information for understanding crop vari-
ability, which was undiscernible at lower resolution (25 m
pixel) (Neale 2007) and highlighted the importance of res-
olution when describing within-field variability.
RS in Sugarcane Agriculture
In countries where mechanical harvesting is limited, RS
technology has been proposed as a surrogate for on-the-go
yield mapping (Roloff and Focht 2006). The South African
sugarcane industry has placed considerable emphasis on
satellite-based RS (Schmidt et al. 2001) for quantifying
yield and to target the use of fertiliser and water. Australia
and Brazil which have mechanised cane harvesting and
other operations have also explored the use of remote
sensing. Within the Australian sugar industry, early
research centered on crop estimation and evaluation using
the SPOT and LANDSAT technologies which have an on-
ground resolution of 20–25 m (Markley et al. 2003). The
resolution of such technology for the application of within-
field precision agriculture has been questioned as the
information of 1 pixel is a composite of 16 rows (Bramely
2007). However, yield estimation accuracy in the order of
10% has been achieved using these systems and could be
considered for higher resolution paddock-scale applica-
tions. A solution to the problems posed by these technol-
ogies is the use of airborne digital multi-spectral video
(DMSV) RS that has a pixel resolution of 50 cm and has
been used successfully in South Africa to distinguish
variety, age and water stress (Schmidt et al. 2001) and is a
solution for finer-resolution applications.
Another avenue of RS is the use of EO-1 Hyperion
hyperspectral imagery. The benefit of this type of imagery
is the coverage of the entire spectrum as opposed to
361
LANDSAT and SPOT that cover only 4–8 windows across
the spectrum. The first use of hyperspectral imagery in the
Australian sugarcane industry was to detect ‘‘orange rust’’
disease (Apan et al. 2004). The disease produced a set of
unique spectral bands that could be used to identify areas
within the 30 m pixel. The subsequent development of a
disease—water stress index was to produce classification
accuracies of 96.6% for pixels with disease. Armed with
this spatial information, growers could manage potential
outbreaks in a timely fashion before major crop devastation
occurs. Another study revealed that hyperspectral imagery
captured prior to harvest could be used to classify nine
sugarcane varieties 100% of the time using an innovative
statistical method (support vector machines) (Everingham
et al. 2007). Similar work using hyperspectral imagery in
Brazil focused on discriminating sugarcane varieties
(Galvao et al. 2005, 2006), assessment of the area under
production and yield estimation (Almeida et al. 2006).
A study was conducted for identification and acreage
estimation of sugarcane crop in Andhra Pradesh Vuyyuru
and Lakshmipuram zones of KCP Sugar factory using
satellite RS data during 1997–2000. The satellite data was
analyzed using supervised classification techniques for
acreage estimation. The acreage estimation was possible
after 100 days of planting of sugarcane and the cane crop
could be identified on satellite data after April month
(Krishna Rao et al. 2002).
In a study using natural field grown crop samples at
canopy scale to pixel scale attempts were made to separate
various crop cultivars based solely on crop reflectance with
the help of spectral libraries. Discrimination of as many as
12 crop cultivars belonging to rice, sugarcane, chilli and
cotton crops in a semi-arid part of India has shown
promising results with 86.5 and 88.8% spectral variability
explained by hyperspectral reflectance data at canopy scale
and at pixel scale (Rao et al. 2007).
Spectral information is well related with agronomic
variables and can be used in crop monitoring and yield
forecasting in sugarcane. Simões et al. (2005) studied the
spectral behavior using field spectroscopy and its rela-
tionship with agronomic parameters such as Leaf Area
Index (LAI), number of stalks per meter (NPM), yield
(TSS) and total biomass (BMT). Band 4 (B4), Simple Ratio
(SR), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI),
Rationalised Vegetation Index (RVI) and Soil Adjusted
Vegetation Index (SAVI) increased their values until the
end of the vegetative stage, i.e. around 240 days after
harvest (DAC) in the ratoon sugarcane. After that stage, B4
reflectance and NDVI values began to stabilize and
decrease as the crop reached ripening and senescence
stages. Band 3 (B3) and RVI presented decreased values
from the beginning of the cycle, followed by a stabilization
stage. Later these values had a slight increase caused by the
123
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lower amount of green vegetation. Spectral variables B3,
RVI, NDVI, and SAVI were highly correlated (C0.79) with
LAI, TSS, and BMT, and about 0.50 with NPM. The best
regression models were verified for RVI, LAI, and NPM,
which explained 0.97 of TSS variation and 0.99 of BMT
variation.
Harvesting sugarcane under wet conditions leads to
dramatic yield decline from plant to ratoon crops and an
unsustainable system, mainly due to the mismatch of
machinery track widths with current row spacings. This
necessitates a change in the farming system to incorporate
controlled traffic, wider row spacing and permanent crop-
ping beds, with the aid of GPS guidance. Ensbey et al.
(2007) reported that whole cane harvesting for cogenera-
tion will increase in-field haulout traffic by 30% with the
potential for yield decline due to increased soil compac-
tion. Controlled traffic with the aid of GPS guidance
indicated that there is a potential for small yield increases.
Mapping of Sugarcane YLD Affected Area
The most common methods used to detect Sugarcane
Yellow Leaf Virus (SCYLV) are serological leaf-printing
(Comstock et al. 1998; Schenck et al. 1997), reverse
transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis
(Comstock et al. 1998; Viswanathan et al. 2008, 2009), and
real-time PCR (Korimbocus et al. 2002). RS may provide a
rapid alternative method to determine SCYLV impacted
populations. Disease, as well as other stresses, affect the
amount and quality of electromagnetic radiation reflected
from leaves of plants, and difference in reflectance can,
therefore, be used to detect pathogen infections (Guan and
Nutter 2002; West et al. 2003). Multispectral RS has been
used effectively to monitor the incidence of a number of
plant pathogens (Blazquez and Edwards 1986; Steddom
et al. 2003) however, a more recent trend has been the
application of hyperspectral measurements for the detec-
tion of plant diseases (Apan et al. 2003, 2004; Bravo et al.
2003; Mehl et al. 2004; Vigier et al. 2004). Multispectral
sensors measure a few wide wavelength bands separated by
spectral segments where no measurements are made, while
most hyperspectral sensors acquire dozens to hundreds of
contiguous narrow spectral bands. Spectral reflectance
characteristics of plant canopies are influenced by the
chemical composition and physical structure of the leaves
and spectral properties of the source. Leaf pigments are
well positioned to absorb incident light and can be assessed
with spectral reflectance. Changes in pigment levels reflect
normal physiological responses in the plant as well as
responses to environmental and other stresses including
diseases (Gitelson et al. 2001, 2002).
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Sugar Tech (December 2011) 13(4):360–365
Sugarcane infected with SCYLV rarely produces visual
symptoms until late in the growing season (Viswanathan
et al. 2008). High-resolution, hyperspectral reflectance data
from SCYLV-infected and noninfected leaves of two cul-
tivars, LCP 85-384 and Ho 95-988, were measured and
analyzed. All plants were asymptomatic. Infection was
determined by RT-PCR analysis. Results from discriminant
analysis showed that leaf reflectance was effective at pre-
dicting SCYLV infection in 73% of the cases in both cul-
tivars using resubstitution and 63 and 62% in LCP 85-384
and Ho 95-988, respectively, using cross-validation. Pre-
dictive equations were improved when data from sampling
dates were analyzed individually. SCYLV infection influ-
enced the concentration of several leaf pigments including
violaxanthin, b-carotene, neoxanthin, and chlorophyll a.
Pigment data were effective at predicting SCYLV infection
in 80% of the samples in the combined data set using the
derived discriminant function with resubstitution, and 71%
with crossvalidation. This demonstrates the potential
application of hyperspectral RS as a rapid, field-based
method of identifying SCYLV-infected sugarcane plants
prior to symptom expression (Grisham et al. 2010).
GIS
Environmentally-sound agriculture is increasingly infor-
mation-driven. Implementation of new management para-
digms such as integrated crop management and integrated
pest management requires ready access to environmental
data. The growing availability of computer based GIS is
the main reason for believing that all forms of information
about soils and land can be utilized in land use planning.
GIS is found to be effective in preparing, maintaining and
carrying out futuristic analysis of land use planning and
management.
GIS is a software application that is used to manage and
analyse spatial data. GIS is mainly used to store, retrieve
and transform spatial information relating to productivity
and agronomy (Blackmer and White 1998). This infor-
mation can be derived from a number of data sources
including digital maps, digitised maps and photographs,
soil and crop surveys, sensor data with positioning infor-
mation, point analytical data and/or yield maps. The
graphical interface of this software reproduces the analysed
data as maps for the specific field. These maps are then
used to understand the interaction between yield, soil fer-
tility, pest and disease, weeds, landscape changes and other
factors of interest (Ulbricht and Heckendorff 1998; Zaizhi
2000). These spatial relationships can then be used to make
management decisions. For use in precision agriculture,
GIS can create primary information maps of soil type,
distribution of N, P, K and other nutrients, topography, soil
Sugar Tech (December 2011) 13(4):360–365
moisture, pH and crop cover. The strength of GIS lies in its
capability to graphically overlay and display different data
layers (Jhoty 1995). However, GIS alone is unable to sta-
tistically validate these relationships and must be used in
conjunction with spatial statistical techniques to draw valid
conclusions.
Like GPS, GIS is a key enabling technology in the
sugarcane industry and is used in conjunction with other
precision agriculture technologies to relate spatial infor-
mation to the crop. GIS is a powerful tool that has a
demonstrated ability to enhance decision-making through
the visual interface (Campbell 1994) and has been explored
in the sugarcane industry (Fuelling and Wright 1997; Jhoty
1995; Johnson and Walker 1996; Markley et al. 2003;
Schmidt et al. 2001). The usefulness of linking and inte-
grating GIS with other precision agriculture technologies
such as RS (Markley et al. 2003; Schmidt et al. 2001), GPS
(Fuelling and Wright 1997) and base maps (soil, topogra-
phy, rainfall, etc.) with agronomic data (Jhoty 1995) makes
GIS an attractive precision agriculture technology. How-
ever, the main concern with linking GIS with other spatial
data is the difference in spatial resolutions between tech-
nologies. For example, when combining data derived from
accurate paddock and coarse remote-sensed data the
placement of paddock boundaries can only be within the
order of the pixel resolution of the remote-sensed data
(Markley et al. 2003), which in turn influences the reso-
lution of management recommendations. Although these
limitations pose a significant challenge when overlaying
multiple data sources at different resolutions, the GIS is an
essential precision agriculture technology for linking spa-
tial data to crop characteristics on a graphical interface.
Precision Farming
The advent of information technology has accelerated our
ability to acquire large volumes of spatial data. It is widely
acknowledged that key technologies facilitating modern
precision agriculture are yield monitors, remote and prox-
imal sensing, GPS and GIS (Stafford 2006). Although these
technologies may be advanced in cereal cropping systems
(Srinivasan 2006), the majority of these technologies
require more research and development before they can
become operationalised as part of the sugarcane production
system. Although technology is portrayed as the most
important component of precision agriculture it is impor-
tant to understand the limitations of the current technolo-
gies with respect to the application. For example, soil
sampling at 1 sample per 1.5 ha may be inappropriate for
the delineation of fertility zones that require 20–30 m
sampling grids (Mallarino and Wittry 2004; McBratney
and Pringle 1999). Conversely, remotely sensed data with a
363
pixel size of 30 m may be appropriate for the classification
of variety or an outbreak of disease at the block level (Apan
et al. 2004; Everingham et al. 2007).
Mitr Phol Sugarcane Research Centre has developed
‘‘Sugarcane Information and Management System’’
(SIMS) with integrated suitable information technologies
viz., RS, GIS and GPS to map the cane area and build
database of contract farmers’ fields. These data such as soil
and fertilizer management, cultural practice and meteoro-
logical data will be utilized to recommend varieties and
soil suitability into SIMS for precision agriculture
(Weerathaworn et al. 2006).
Indeed, RS may circumvent or solve the problems
associated with understanding the spatial relationship of
yield gathered from the yield monitor and commercial cane
sugar of the paddock. Regardless of the use of RS tech-
nology, the major challenge facing the industry is the
process of streamlining interpretation. Research should be
directed towards automated, generic and mechanistic
solutions for interpreting and analysing remote-sensed data
for benefit of the industry (Davis et al. 2007).
Lebourgeois et al. (2007b) maped inside-field spatial
variability and explored its relationship with nutrient and
water conditions of the sugarcane crop using of an ultra-
light aircraft equipped with visible, NIR and thermal
infrared cameras.
Studies on site-specific management of inputs for
improved resource use efficiency by periodic crop condi-
tion assessment made through analysis of LISS-III satellite
images in Karnataka indicated that fertigation with 300 kg
N and 195 kg K per ha at fortnightly interval and soil
application of 32 kg P per ha as basal dose, recorded higher
sugarcane yield of 167 t ha-1 as compared to 124 t ha-1
obtained with soil application of 250 kg N, 32 kg P and
156 kg K per ha and flood irrigation as per the package
recommended. Fertigation of N and K at weekly interval
resulted in highest NDVI value of 0.354 and soil applica-
tion of nutrients resulted in the lowest NDVI of 0.219 (Patil
and Nadagouda 2008).
Ganeshaiah et al. (2003) predicted the potential geo-
graphical distribution of the sugarcane woolly aphid using
GARP and DIVA-GIS.
Technology certainly plays a significant part in the
precision agriculture scheme, but understanding the
appropriateness of the different forms of technology in
response to a management problem is an essential element
for successful precision agriculture implementation. Many
of the enabling technologies discussed are at varying stages
of development with many having restricted application
and usefulness when applied at the within-paddock level.
However, these technologies can still contribute to larger-
scale forms of precision agriculture at the region, mill, farm
or paddock level.
123
364
If the sugar industry decides that using GPS and GIS to
chase the benefits of selective harvesting is potentially
worthwhile, sorting out the spatial and temporal interac-
tions between yield and CCS will be a critical research
issue. Thus the adoption of theses technologies in a pre-
cision conservation philosophy could assist in managing
the interactions between cane farming and environmental
protection in the sensitive coastal floodplain ecosystems.
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