Abstract
Rice (Oryza sativa) is the second staple food largely grown and widely consumed in Pakistan. About 10% of the total crop area of Pakistan is cultivated by rice that takes a part in value addition of almost 1.3% - 1.6% in the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Due to global warming, temperature has a profound impact on rice crop phenology. Low temperature is the main factor of delay in rice plant growth and very high temperature results in stressed and short heighted plant so the crop sown in a region at the same time is not ready to harvest at same hours but a delay is observed. The study area under investigation was district Sheikhupura, Nankana, Lahore, Gujranawala and Hafizabad, which are famous for rice productivity. Landsat 7, 8 freely available thermal dataset are used to calculated pixel based temperature values to evaluate growth using agricultural growth indicators. The total covered area was 13,480 km2 in which 484 km2 area was marked as less growth rate area with low temperature values due to water body and excess of vegetation over there. About 7960 km2 area is marked as good for growth experiencing optimum temperature for rice plant. Approximately 4944 km2 area is marked as stressed rice plant area experiencing high temperature values adjacent to urban population. An attempt is made here to map this effect of temperature-based growth variability of the rice plant across the study area.
Highlights
Pakistan is fortunate to enjoy the rich export quality of Basmati rice that returns three to four times of all the coarse varieties available in international market
Low temperature is the main factor of delay in rice plant growth and very high temperature results in stressed and short heighted plant so the crop sown in a region at the same time is not ready to harvest at same hours but a delay is observed
Remote sensing and GIS techniques applied in this research, proved to be very useful in spatio-temporal monitoring of rice plant at various growth stages, and remained time efficient for a large study area
Summary
Pakistan is fortunate to enjoy the rich export quality of Basmati rice that returns three to four times of all the coarse varieties available in international market. The cultivated land area for rice production doubled from 1948 to 1978 due to high demands at national level. The ratio of increment in the area used for rice production increases by roughly 2% annually. Rice cultivation area increased from 790 thousands ha in 1947 to 2017 thousands ha in 1990 with 163.54% increment over the period of 44 years with same trend on the way. Production increased along the same patterns with 693 thousand tons in 1947 and 3220 thousand tons in 1990 giving an increase of 364%. It went on increasing from 877 kg in 1948 to 1528 kg in 1990 indicating an increase of 73% [1]
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