Temperature Based Spatiotemporal Growth Monitoring of Rice Plant from Germination-Ripening Stage Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Rice (Oryza sativa) is the second staple food largely grown and widely consumed in Pakistan. About 10% of the total crop area of Pakistan is cultivated by rice that takes a part in value addition of almost 1.3% - 1.6% in the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Due to global warming, temperature has a profound impact on rice crop phenology. Low temperature is the main factor of delay in rice plant growth and very high temperature results in stressed and short heighted plant so the crop sown in a region at the same time is not ready to harvest at same hours but a delay is observed. The study area under investigation was district Sheikhupura, Nankana, Lahore, Gujranawala and Hafizabad, which are famous for rice productivity. Landsat 7, 8 freely available thermal dataset are used to calculated pixel based temperature values to evaluate growth using agricultural growth indicators. The total covered area was 13,480 km² in which 484 km² area was marked as less growth rate area with low temperature values due to water body and excess of vegetation over there. About 7960 km² area is marked as good for growth experiencing optimum temperature for rice plant. Approximately 4944 km2 area is marked as stressed rice plant area experiencing high temperature values adjacent to urban population. An attempt is made here to map this effect of temperature-based growth variability of the rice plant across the study area.