Estimating rice yield under different wheat residue coverage levels using multispectral Gaofen satellite data and remote sensing indices

Satellite remote sensing (RS) offers an efficient, large-scale approach for monitoring crop health, particularly in precise estimation of crop yields. Rice is a staple food for over three billion people worldwide, making it crucial to estimate rice yield promptly to ensure food security and support...

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Main Authors: Muhammad Sohail Memon, Shuren Chen, Jun Guo, Babar Iqbal, Zhiqiang Du, Mohamed Farag Taha, Noreena Memon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PAGEPress Publications 2025-06-01
Series:Journal of Agricultural Engineering
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Online Access:https://www.agroengineering.org/jae/article/view/1698
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author Muhammad Sohail Memon
Shuren Chen
Jun Guo
Babar Iqbal
Zhiqiang Du
Mohamed Farag Taha
Noreena Memon
author_facet Muhammad Sohail Memon
Shuren Chen
Jun Guo
Babar Iqbal
Zhiqiang Du
Mohamed Farag Taha
Noreena Memon
author_sort Muhammad Sohail Memon
collection DOAJ
description Satellite remote sensing (RS) offers an efficient, large-scale approach for monitoring crop health, particularly in precise estimation of crop yields. Rice is a staple food for over three billion people worldwide, making it crucial to estimate rice yield promptly to ensure food security and support sustainable agriculture. However, traditional field survey methods for yield assessment, are often labor-intensive, and time-consuming. To address this challenge, we propose a novel approach that integrates Gaofen-1 (GF-1) and Gaofen-6 (GF-6) multispectral data for monitoring and evaluating rice crop yield under different wheat residue cover (WRC) percentages. This method employed three Remote Sensing (RS) based vegetation indices (VIs): i) enhanced vegetation index (EVI), ii) normalized difference vegetation Index (NDVI), and iii) green normalized difference vegetation index (GNDVI), with field data collected from 80 sampling points across paddy fields in the Changshu County, China. The results demonstrated that land use and land cover (LULC) mapping effectively classified paddy fields, covering 66% of the study area, with a classification accuracy of 88% (κ = 0.84). Among the relationships tested between VIs and WRC, NDVI showed the highest correlation (R² = 0.66), followed by EVI (R² = 0.60) and GNDVI (R² = 0.51), confirming NDVI as the most effective index for yield modeling. The yield estimation model, based on peak NDVI values correlated with measured rice yield from the calibration dataset (n=52), achieved R² = 0.83 and validation with test data (n=28) showed high accuracy of R² = 0.88 with low error metrics (RMSE = 3.48% and MAPE = 2.35%). Additionally, the findings indicated that the highest rice yields (8.21-8.36 tons/ha) were observed at moderate WRC levels (60-75%) compared to other residue percentages. These outcomes suggest that an appropriate amount of WRC enhances rice yield by supporting moisture retention and nutrient availability, which optimizes overall crop performance.Therefore, we strongly recommend integration of Gaofen satellite data with NDVI could be a scalable, cost-effective solution for accurate yield prediction that supports sustainable residue management practices and precision agriculture. 
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spelling doaj-art-b7bb0a47a7c64dd4b83d0fcb974122af2025-08-20T03:33:11ZengPAGEPress PublicationsJournal of Agricultural Engineering1974-70712239-62682025-06-0110.4081/jae.2025.1698Estimating rice yield under different wheat residue coverage levels using multispectral Gaofen satellite data and remote sensing indicesMuhammad Sohail Memon0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0079-0260Shuren Chen1https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5149-437XJun Guo2Babar Iqbal 3Zhiqiang Du 4Mohamed Farag Taha5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1951-1786Noreena Memon6Key Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Equipment and Technology of Ministry of Education; School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, ZhenjiangKey Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Equipment and Technology of Ministry of Education; School of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, ZhenjiangSchool of Automotive Engineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, JiangsuSchool of Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, ZhenjiangKey Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Equipment and Technology of Ministry of Education, Jiangsu University, ZhenjiangSchool of Agricultural Engineering, Jiangsu University, ZhenjiangDepartment of Farm Power and Machinery, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam Satellite remote sensing (RS) offers an efficient, large-scale approach for monitoring crop health, particularly in precise estimation of crop yields. Rice is a staple food for over three billion people worldwide, making it crucial to estimate rice yield promptly to ensure food security and support sustainable agriculture. However, traditional field survey methods for yield assessment, are often labor-intensive, and time-consuming. To address this challenge, we propose a novel approach that integrates Gaofen-1 (GF-1) and Gaofen-6 (GF-6) multispectral data for monitoring and evaluating rice crop yield under different wheat residue cover (WRC) percentages. This method employed three Remote Sensing (RS) based vegetation indices (VIs): i) enhanced vegetation index (EVI), ii) normalized difference vegetation Index (NDVI), and iii) green normalized difference vegetation index (GNDVI), with field data collected from 80 sampling points across paddy fields in the Changshu County, China. The results demonstrated that land use and land cover (LULC) mapping effectively classified paddy fields, covering 66% of the study area, with a classification accuracy of 88% (κ = 0.84). Among the relationships tested between VIs and WRC, NDVI showed the highest correlation (R² = 0.66), followed by EVI (R² = 0.60) and GNDVI (R² = 0.51), confirming NDVI as the most effective index for yield modeling. The yield estimation model, based on peak NDVI values correlated with measured rice yield from the calibration dataset (n=52), achieved R² = 0.83 and validation with test data (n=28) showed high accuracy of R² = 0.88 with low error metrics (RMSE = 3.48% and MAPE = 2.35%). Additionally, the findings indicated that the highest rice yields (8.21-8.36 tons/ha) were observed at moderate WRC levels (60-75%) compared to other residue percentages. These outcomes suggest that an appropriate amount of WRC enhances rice yield by supporting moisture retention and nutrient availability, which optimizes overall crop performance.Therefore, we strongly recommend integration of Gaofen satellite data with NDVI could be a scalable, cost-effective solution for accurate yield prediction that supports sustainable residue management practices and precision agriculture.  https://www.agroengineering.org/jae/article/view/1698Crop residue managementNDVIprecision agriculturerice mappingyield prediction
spellingShingle Muhammad Sohail Memon
Shuren Chen
Jun Guo
Babar Iqbal
Zhiqiang Du
Mohamed Farag Taha
Noreena Memon
Estimating rice yield under different wheat residue coverage levels using multispectral Gaofen satellite data and remote sensing indices
Journal of Agricultural Engineering
Crop residue management
NDVI
precision agriculture
rice mapping
yield prediction
title Estimating rice yield under different wheat residue coverage levels using multispectral Gaofen satellite data and remote sensing indices
title_full Estimating rice yield under different wheat residue coverage levels using multispectral Gaofen satellite data and remote sensing indices
title_fullStr Estimating rice yield under different wheat residue coverage levels using multispectral Gaofen satellite data and remote sensing indices
title_full_unstemmed Estimating rice yield under different wheat residue coverage levels using multispectral Gaofen satellite data and remote sensing indices
title_short Estimating rice yield under different wheat residue coverage levels using multispectral Gaofen satellite data and remote sensing indices
title_sort estimating rice yield under different wheat residue coverage levels using multispectral gaofen satellite data and remote sensing indices
topic Crop residue management
NDVI
precision agriculture
rice mapping
yield prediction
url https://www.agroengineering.org/jae/article/view/1698
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