Modelling rabi crop health in flood plain region of India using time-series Landsat data

The present work intended to model the vegetation health index (VHI) of rabi crop and explored its time series change (1990-2019) at pixel scale using Landsat satellite imageries. Identification of consistency level of rabi crop was another objective. VHI was estimated by integrating crop condition index (CCI) and temperature condition index (TCI). The CCI and TCI were derived from normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST). 80% of the study area covered by rabi crop with 8.73% of variability. Remarkable change in crop health (VHI) was detected in the last 30 years. 5% of rabi cropped area was under good health category in the present decade (2010-2019), while it was around 10% during 1990-2009. During last decade, the poor health category of rabi crop was only 7.40% area, while it reached to 66.74% in the present decade. Good VHI area was getting fragmented and vice versa.

Automated summary

This study modeled the vegetation health index (VHI) of rabi crop and examined its time series change from 1990 to 2019 using Landsat satellite images. The results showed a significant change in crop health over the past 30 years, with a larger area of rabi crop in poor health in the present decade. The study highlights the importance of monitoring and managing crop health for sustainable agriculture.