Menthol Mint (Mentha arvensis L.) Crop Acreage Estimation Using Multi-temporal Satellite Imagery

Crop acreage estimation is an essential component for forecasting crop production. Menthol mint acreage estimation is a necessity as the crop production data change every year due to fluctuations in the market prices of menthol mint oil; hence, the rate available to farmers also changes every year. These acreage estimation studies would be helpful in reducing the uncertainties of menthol mint production as lower price results in low production and high price results in higher production next year. Thus, it in turn would help in stabilizing the market prices. Nowadays, remote sensing technologies due to their availability and adaptability are being widely used for crop acreage estimation nationally and internationally. This study focuses on menthol mint crop acreage estimation in the Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh, India, using 2017 Sentinel-2A satellite data. Adaptive maximum likelihood classification algorithm was applied after intensive ground survey to obtain reliable menthol mint crop acreage estimation for talukwise statistics. Results have shown that menthol mint was extensively cultivated in the Fatehpur and Barabanki taluks as compared to the Haidergarh and Ram Sanehi Ghat taluks of Barabanki district. Menthol mint crop acreage estimation in the study area was estimated to be about 58,284.70 ha with (89.13% and 87.23%; users and producer’s accuracy) with overall accuracy (90.67%) and kappa value (0.844). In this study, early and late menthol mint crop acreage estimation was also attempted and it was found that about 26,123.50 ha and 29,911.40 ha were the area of early and late menthol mint, respectively. This method can be useful for localized-level crop acreage estimation from early to mature stage of menthol mint during its growing season.