Rice Equivalent Crop Yield Assessment Using MODIS Sensors’ Based MOD13A1-NDVI Data

Abstract

This paper analyzes the site-specific infield fertilizer treatments, its application rate discrepancies and crop yield assessment using rice equivalent productivity in terms of their economic potential using MOD13A1-normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (a moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiomete derived 16 day composite normalized difference vegetation index product, with spatial resolution of 500 m). Soil quality and final crop yield response to nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) fertilizers were taken from selected experimental Agri-plots in the part of Kuru region in North India, to calculate site-specific rice equivalent yield (REY) in the crop year of 2005-2006. A 3 × 3 spatial window average pixel reflectance of the NDVI layer at the regional level was used to assess its relationship with contemporaneous cropping systems, such as rice-wheat, rice-sugarcane, and rice-onion in the study area. A robust linear regressive relationship of R 2 = 0.69, has been found between site-specific vegetation index values and calculated REY. Inverse distance weighted spatial interpolation method was used to analyze the spatial variability of three major fertilizer nutrients (NPK) response in the study area. The potassium nutrient availability showed high levels of spatial autocorrelation, suggesting that proper fertilizer application ratio with genuine irrigation practices may be used for underpinning of the high crop yield variety acreages. In order to strengthen the crop productivity, we have suggested the diversified triple-based cropping systems with satellite mounted sensor derived NDVI products as a holistic and feasible monitoring approach.