GIS BASED ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF NDVI FOR AGRICULTURAL APPLICATIONS IN SALEM DISTRICT – TAMIL NADU

Abstract. Remote sensing satellites in recent years have emerged as a vital tool for generating the biophysical information, which further helps to evolve the optimal land use plan for sustainable development of an area. The natural resources are to be categorized to obtain the area best suitable for crop production so that they could be better utilized in agricultural planning. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has been widely used to monitor moisture-related vegetation condition. The 8-day composite and spatial resolution of 250 m for the years 2002–2012 have obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) Surface Reflectance (MOD09A) used for grouping biomass. The MOD09A product was selected because it consisted of both visible and infrared bands, which is requisite for deriving NDVI. The NDVI was used to determine the biomass categorization had four classes B1 (NDVI of 0.06–0.10), B2 (0.1 to 0.2), B3 (0.2–0.4) and B4 (> 0.4) which were rated as poor, moderate, good and excellent, respectively. Here, excellent biomass category was found to cover more area compared to other biomass categories. The per cent area covered under excellent category was (88.7 %) in Salem district. This showed that the agriculture area in this district is largely suitable for crop growth. The categorization of biomass as good to excellent in Salem might be due to the good seasonal (both monsoon) rainfall. It could pave way for better agricultural management and transfer of technology.