THE USE OF MULTITEMPORAL NDVI MEASUREMENTS FROM AVHRR DATA FOR CROP YIELD ESTIMATION AND PREDICTION

This paper investigates the potential of using vegetation index profiles from AVHRR data to monitor crop yield. A retrospective study and predictive study is presented, for 1986-1988 and 1989 respectively, for an area in Northern Greece. Results are encouraging for operational crop monitoring. Yield for wheat, cotton, rice and maize crops has been estimated to a high degree of accuracy using a simple linear relationship between NDVI and yield. However input from an agro-meteorological model is recommended to modify the model during the grain-filling period of the wheat crop. The estimates stabilize 50-100 days prior to harvest enabling an early assessment of crop yield to be made.