Real time surveillance of paddy field using Landsat images

Rice is one of the dominant crops in Kerala. Declination of rice fields from Kerala creates a threat to food security of the state. The traditional method for estimating paddy field area is the use of agricultural statistical data acquired through field visits. But this method is time-consuming and requires a lot of manual labour. So it is essential to extract the paddy field and forecast its production as accurately as possible using fast and cost effective methods such as remote sensing. Landsat program has been used to map the land use and land cover on the earth's surface. This work proposes a method to extract paddy field occupying regions in Alappuzha District, Kerala from Landsat8 images and forecast rice production using M5P tree. Initially, Landsat8 images of all rice growing season are exported from Google Earth Engine based on vegetation thresholds. The obtained paddy field area along with other Landsat8 derived vegetation indices are used to predict rice production using M5P tree. Agricultural statistical data provided by the Government of Kerala has been used for evaluating the accuracy of the estimated area.