IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i15p12034-d1211518.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Irrigation Scheduling for Small-Scale Crops Based on Crop Water Content Patterns Derived from UAV Multispectral Imagery

Author

Listed:
  • Yonela Mndela

    (Department of GIS and Remote Sensing, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa)

  • Naledzani Ndou

    (Department of GIS and Remote Sensing, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa)

  • Adolph Nyamugama

    (Agriculture Research Council, Institute for Soil, Climate and Water (ARC-ISCW), Pretoria 0001, South Africa)

Abstract

A timely irrigation schedule for small-scale farms is imperative for ensuring optimum crop production in the wake of drought and climate change. Owing to the large number of irrigated small-scale farms that grow different crops across all seasons in the Mutale River catchment, this study sought to develop irrigation scheduling for these crops for sustainable water utilization without compromising crop yields. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images were utilized as the base from which crop water content patterns were derived. A total of four (4) spectral vegetation indices, viz, the Greenness Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Red-Edge Index (NDRE), and Optimized Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (OSAVI), were generated to characterize crop types and water content in this study. Crop water content data, in the form of the relative water content (RWC), were measured in the field for each type of crop. Crop water content was modelled based on the empirical relationships between spectral indices and field-measured RWC. The linear regression analysis revealed a significant association between the GNDVI and the water content of sweet potato, maize, sugar beans, and Florida broadleaf mustard, with r 2 values of 0.948, 0.995, 0.978, and 0.953, respectively. The NDVI revealed a strong association with the water content of Solanum retroflexum , pepper, and cabbage, with r 2 values of 0.949, 0.956, and 0.995, respectively. The NDRE, on the other hand, revealed a strong relationship with water content in peas and green beans, with r 2 values of 0.961 and 0.974, respectively. The crop water content patterns simulation revealed that Solanum retroflexum , sweet potato, maize, sugar beans, and Florida broadleaf mustard reached their respective wilting points on day four after irrigation, implying that irrigation of these crops should be scheduled after every four (4) days. Peas, green beans, pepper, and cabbage reached their respective wilting points on day five after irrigation, implying that irrigation of these crops should be scheduled after every five days. The results of this study highlight the significance of considering crop water content derived from spectral bands of UAV imagery in scheduling irrigation for various types of crops. This study also emphasized the on-going significance of remote sensing technology in addressing agricultural issues that impede hunger alleviation and food security goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Yonela Mndela & Naledzani Ndou & Adolph Nyamugama, 2023. "Irrigation Scheduling for Small-Scale Crops Based on Crop Water Content Patterns Derived from UAV Multispectral Imagery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-21, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:12034-:d:1211518
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/12034/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/12034/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kahil, Mohamed Taher & Connor, Jeffery D. & Albiac, Jose, 2015. "Efficient water management policies for irrigation adaptation to climate change in Southern Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 226-233.
    2. Lowder, Sarah K. & Skoet, Jakob & Singh, Saumya, 2014. "What do we really know about the number and distribution of farms and family farms in the world? Background paper for The State of Food and Agriculture 2014," ESA Working Papers 288983, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    3. Baiphethi, Mompati N. & Jacobs, Peter T., 2009. "The contribution of subsistence farming to food security in South Africa," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 48(4), pages 1-24, December.
    4. Fan Fan & Bei Li & Weifeng Zhang & John R. Porter & Fusuo Zhang, 2021. "Evaluation of Sustainability of Irrigated Crops in Arid Regions, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, January.
    5. Luís Guilherme Teixeira Crusiol & Liang Sun & Zheng Sun & Ruiqing Chen & Yongfeng Wu & Juncheng Ma & Chenxi Song, 2022. "In-Season Monitoring of Maize Leaf Water Content Using Ground-Based and UAV-Based Hyperspectral Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-19, July.
    6. Ortega-Farias, Samuel & Espinoza-Meza, Sergio & López-Olivari, Rafael & Araya-Alman, Miguel & Carrasco-Benavides, Marcos, 2021. "Effects of different irrigation levels on plant water status, yield, fruit quality, and water productivity in a drip-irrigated blueberry orchard under Mediterranean conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    7. Hanjra, Munir A. & Qureshi, M. Ejaz, 2010. "Global water crisis and future food security in an era of climate change," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 365-377, October.
    8. Bastiaanssen, Wim G. M. & Molden, David J. & Makin, Ian W., 2000. "Remote sensing for irrigated agriculture: examples from research and possible applications," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 137-155, December.
    9. Yetbarek, Ephrem & Ojha, Richa, 2020. "Spatio-temporal variability of soil moisture in a cropped agricultural plot within the Ganga Basin, India," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    10. De Swaef, Tom & Steppe, Kathy & Lemeur, Raoul, 2009. "Determining reference values for stem water potential and maximum daily trunk shrinkage in young apple trees based on plant responses to water deficit," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(4), pages 541-550, April.
    11. Zhihui Yang & Jun Zhao & Jialiang Liu & Yuanyuan Wen & Yanqiang Wang, 2021. "Soil Moisture Retrieval Using Microwave Remote Sensing Data and a Deep Belief Network in the Naqu Region of the Tibetan Plateau," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-19, November.
    12. Romero, R. & Muriel, J.L. & García, I. & Muñoz de la Peña, D., 2012. "Research on automatic irrigation control: State of the art and recent results," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 59-66.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hualin Xie & Yuyang Wen & Yongrok Choi & Xinmin Zhang, 2021. "Global Trends on Food Security Research: A Bibliometric Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-21, January.
    2. Rose Tirtalistyani & Murtiningrum Murtiningrum & Rameshwar S. Kanwar, 2022. "Indonesia Rice Irrigation System: Time for Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Fang, Lan & Fu, Yong & Chen, Shaojian & Mao, Hui, 2021. "Can water rights trading pilot policy ensure food security in China? Based on the difference-in-differences method," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 23(6), pages 1415-1434.
    4. Abdoul G. Sam & Babatunde O. Abidoye & Sihle Mashaba, 2021. "Climate change and household welfare in sub-Saharan Africa: empirical evidence from Swaziland," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(2), pages 439-455, April.
    5. Pelai, Ricardo & Hagerman, Shannon M. & Kozak, Robert, 2020. "Biotechnologies in agriculture and forestry: Governance insights from a comparative systematic review of barriers and recommendations," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    6. Bipul Neupane & Teerayut Horanont & Nguyen Duy Hung, 2019. "Deep learning based banana plant detection and counting using high-resolution red-green-blue (RGB) images collected from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-22, October.
    7. Rahmani, Javad & Danesh-Yazdi, Mohammad, 2022. "Quantifying the impacts of agricultural alteration and climate change on the water cycle dynamics in a headwater catchment of Lake Urmia Basin," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    8. David W. Olivier, 2018. "A Cropping System for Resource-Constrained Urban Agriculture: Lessons from Cape Town," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-12, December.
    9. Majiwa, Eucabeth Bosibori Opande & Lee, Boon & Wilson, Clevo, 2015. "Multi-lateral multi-output measurement of productivity: the case of African agriculture," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212769, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Badir S. Alsaeed & Dexter V. L. Hunt & Soroosh Sharifi, 2022. "Sustainable Water Resources Management Assessment Frameworks (SWRM-AF) for Arid and Semi-Arid Regions: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-31, November.
    11. Lankford, B. & Makin, Ian & Matthews, N. & McCornick, Peter G. & Noble, A. & Shah, Tushaar, "undated". "A compact to revitalise large-scale irrigation systems using a leadership-partnership-ownership 'Theory of Change'," Papers published in Journals (Open Access) H047459, International Water Management Institute.
    12. Ortuño, M.F. & Conejero, W. & Moreno, F. & Moriana, A. & Intrigliolo, D.S. & Biel, C. & Mellisho, C.D. & Pérez-Pastor, A. & Domingo, R. & Ruiz-Sánchez, M.C. & Casadesus, J. & Bonany, J. & Torrecillas,, 2010. "Could trunk diameter sensors be used in woody crops for irrigation scheduling? A review of current knowledge and future perspectives," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 1-11, January.
    13. Pacheco de Castro Flores Ribeiro, Paulo & Osório de Barros de Lima e Santos, José Manuel & Prudêncio Rafael Canadas, Maria João & Contente de Vinha Novais, Ana Maria & Ribeiro Ferraria Moreira, Franci, 2021. "Explaining farming systems spatial patterns: A farm-level choice model based on socioeconomic and biophysical drivers," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    14. Pienaar, L. & Fintel, D. von, 2015. "Hunger in the former apartheid homelands: Determinants of convergence one century after the 1913 land act," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 53(4), March.
    15. Liu, Jing & Hertel, Thomas & Lammers, Richard & Prusevich, Alexander & Baldos, Uris Lantz & Grogan, Danielle & Frolking, Steve, 2016. "Achieving Sustainable Irrigation Water Withdrawals: Global Impacts on Food Production and Land Use," Conference papers 332691, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    16. SIngh Verma, Juhee & Sharma, Pritee, 2019. "Potential of Organic Farming to Mitigate Climate Change and Increase Small Farmers’ Welfare," MPRA Paper 99994, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Abdelfatah, Ashraf & Aranda, Xavier & Savé, Robert & de Herralde, Felicidad & Biel, Carmen, 2013. "Evaluation of the response of maximum daily shrinkage in young cherry trees submitted to water stress cycles in a greenhouse," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 150-158.
    18. Mumuh Muhsin Z. & Nina Herlina & Miftahul Falah & Etty Saringendyanti & Kunto Sofianto & Norlaila Md Zin, 2021. "Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture Sector of Malaysia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(6), pages 138-144.
    19. Kang, Shaozhong & Hao, Xinmei & Du, Taisheng & Tong, Ling & Su, Xiaoling & Lu, Hongna & Li, Xiaolin & Huo, Zailin & Li, Sien & Ding, Risheng, 2017. "Improving agricultural water productivity to ensure food security in China under changing environment: From research to practice," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 5-17.
    20. Ozgul Calicioglu & Alessandro Flammini & Stefania Bracco & Lorenzo Bellù & Ralph Sims, 2019. "The Future Challenges of Food and Agriculture: An Integrated Analysis of Trends and Solutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-21, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:12034-:d:1211518. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.