Remote Sensing in Agriculture and Soil Resources

Reliable data gathered in time on land use/land cover, crop acreage and production estimates, soil resources with respect to their nature, extent, spatial distribution, evaluation of potentials and limitations namely soil erosion by wind and water, soil salinity/alkalinity, moisture, soil compaction etc., plays a key role in advancement of agriculture and utilization of available natural resources on a sustainable basis. Efficiency of soil survey and other natural resources study programmes increased by the use of the data obtained from the remote sensing satellites. Beginning with the Landsat multispectral data during 1970s, spaceborne multispectral measurements from a variety of sensors i.e. Thematic Mapper, SPOT Multi Linear Array, Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) Linear Imaging Self-scanning Sensor (LISS-I, LISS-II and LISS-III), Wide Field Sensor, Panchromatic (PAN) sensor have been extensively used for carrying out soil surveys and various natural resources studies. In this article, an attempt has been made to figure out an overview of remote sensing applications in agriculture and soil resources.