Agronomic Assessment on Paddy Field Using Aerial Imagery and Vegetation Indices: A Review

Abstract

Rice is consumed by the majority of Southeast Asians, particularly in Malaysia itself. As years pass by, rice production has not to inclined to align with a number of populations in Malaysia that keeps growing, thus the self-sufficiency level (SSL) of 100% is not achieved until today. The intention of the government in expanding the granary areas for rice farming by concerning the SSL target to be achieved. Despite that, crop management specifically paddy farming is tedious and requires a lot of manpower. However, as the technology develops and gets sophisticated these days, a discipline that helps in crop management has been introduced over the years called remote sensing. Remote sensing is undoubtedly showed significant application in crop management. The vegetation indices (VIs) algorithm is a branch in remote sensing that enables researchers to evaluate vegetative covers on the ground from aerial view by using spectral measurements either qualitatively or quantitatively. The VIs obtains from the spectral response of the ground areas from the aerial view commonly composed of vegetation areas, soil brightness, various vegetation on the ground, canopy, environmental effects, shadow, and moisture level of soil and plants. Nonetheless, the favourable of remote sensing is the spatial-temporal which helps in determining changes of vegetation over a certain period. This also includes rice farming. Thus, this paper discusses and summarizes the VIs algorithm that was relevant in the application of rice planting. It proposes the popularity and relevance of the VIs algorithm in rice crop management.