Development of Damage Assessment Method of Rice Crop for Agricultural Insurance Using Satellite Data

Goal is to develop new method utilizing satellite data for assessment of damage in paddy field which can contribute toward substantial reduction of the damage assessment time and costs in framework of agricultural insurance. For the damage assessment, estimation of yield in each paddy plot is a key, so the research on the estimation of rice yeild was carried out using satellite data in Hokkaido, Japan. Both multiple linear regression analysis and the projection pursuit regression analysis were conducted for the estimation of yeild using data from 3 different satellites about 3 different rice varieties. As the result, the projection pursuit regression analysis showed smaller value of predictive error than that of the multiple linear regression analysis, and the lowest predictive error was indicated when SPOT5 data with 10 m resolution was used. Moreover, for reducing the predictive error, it was found that a yield estimation formula should be created for each of different rice varieties. The results out of this research suggest that satellite data can be effectively used for estimation of yield and also assessment of damage at lower costs to calculate indemnity in agricultural insurance.