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Can MODIS derived NDVI provide biophysical status of Tea bush?
Rishiraj Dutta, Dr. N.R. Patel
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun
Prof. Dr. Ir. Alfred Stein
International Institute for Geoinformation Science & Earth Observation
The Netherlands
Abstract
Tea is one of the most important beverage in India. It is the number one foreign exchange earner. India is the largest producer of tea in the world. The Indian states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, North Bengal (Darjeeling) and Sikkim contribute significantly to the overall tea production in the country. Apart from those, South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala also contribute to the production of tea.
Over a past few years, it was found that the tea industry is loosing it’s ground. This is mainly because of wrong production mix, inability to compete with other tea producing countries due to high cost of production, organization of small holder farmers, poor quality control at the processing level and more significantly from pests and disease infestations.
Remote sensing and GIS technologies have been efficiently used for monitoring several annual crops like rice, wheat, etc. Therefore, developing an approach for monitoring tea plantations using remote sensing and GIS has become a pressing need. The lack of previous studies in monitoring tea using remote sensing provided the idea to develop an approach that can aid in monitoring the growth of plantations and help in taking effective measures when the need arises.
To test whether MODIS derived NDVI is related to LAI, an empirical equation was established which shows that LAI in tea had significant and linear relationship with NDVI (R2=0.36). This study showed that MODIS based NDVI during April, June and August was significantly correlated to tea leaf yield at estate level. However it was found that NDVI observation at different time period alone could not explained much variance in tea leaf yield. This shows that statistical model for tea yield does not seem to be encouraging.
Introduction:
Tea is indigenous to India and is an area where the country can take a lot of pride. This is mainly because of its pre-eminence as a foreign exchange earner and its contributions to the country's GNP. In all aspects of tea production, consumption and export, India has emerged to be the world leader, mainly because it accounts for 31% of global production. It is perhaps the only industry where India has retained its leadership over the last 150 years. Tea production in India has a very interesting history to it. The range of tea offered by India - from the original Orthodox to CTC and Green Tea, from the aroma and flavour of Darjeeling Tea to the strong Assam and Nilgiri Tea- remains unparalleled in the world. While the tea industry in Assam grew, but with the passage of time it also started facing many problems. The present crisis in the tea industry started in 1999, when unprecedented drought during the early part of the season led to drastic production cuts. Year 2000 saw the marginal improvement in production but there was a sharp drop in price realization. Production in Assam in 2001 was low as compared to the national average. During the year, prices further declined. Export also dropped by 27 million Kgs and Assam could export only 18 million Kgs of tea. It is believed that Assam is losing exports due to wrong production mix, inability to compete with the other tea producing countries due to high cost of production, old age of tea plants, organization of small holder farmers, poor quality control at the processing level and more significantly from pests and disease infestations. The quality of Assam tea has also deteriorated in the past couple of years as planters are paying more stress on quantity over quality. Most of the small holder producers faced the problem in tea sector. There is a falling share of producer price and poor infrastructure for the small growers.
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