Crop Situation in India, Before, During and After COVID-19 Lockdown, as Seen from the Satellite Data of Resourcesat-2 AWiFS

In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the crop situation in India, before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, during the lockdown and after the lockdown. In India, the lockdown was imposed from 24 March to 31 May 2020. That was the period of harvesting of Rabi (winter) season crop and sowing of Zaid (summer) season crop. However, the government announced a large number of measures to provide relaxation to agricultural activities during the lockdown. A satellite remote sensing-based assessment was carried out to see the impact of the lockdown and government measures. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time composite all-India product derived from Resourcesat-2/2A Advanced Wide Field Sensor for February, May, and July 2020 was used to assess the crop situation, representing three crop seasons, i.e. Rabi, Zaid and Kharif (rainy). NDVI images of 2020 were compared with corresponding images of 2019. Change images were generated, and state-level NDVI values were computed. The state-level cropped area proportion was also mapped using the NDVI thresholding approach. The crop sown area statistics, crop cutting experiment (CCE) numbers and rainfall data were also compared for both the years. It was observed that the differences were very low between the NDVI of 2019 and 2020 in February month. However, the differences were high in many states during May and in most of the states during July. A statistical test of significance (paired t test) was carried out for state-level NDVI and crop area values, which validated this result. This NDVI change was mostly due to increased crop area during Zaid and Kharif (rainy) seasons and higher rainfall from May to July. The satellite and other data (crop area and CCE numbers) analysis also showed the sowing and harvesting operations in major parts of the country went on smoothly, during the lockdown period.