April 18, 2025

CROP (Comprehensive Remote Sensing Observation on Crop Progress), a semi-automated, scalable framework, developed by NRSC/ISRO enables the near real-time monitoring of crop sowing and harvesting during the Rabi season across India. Using this approach, the progress of Wheat sown areas and the overall crop condition across Indian states were systematically assessed, using Optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) remote sensing datasets from EOS-04 (RISAT-1A), EOS-06 (Oceansat-3), and Resourcesat-2A, for the Rabi season, 2024-25 (Figure 1).

Sowing progress of Wheat crop, is being monitored across eight major Wheat growing states of India (Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra) during the 2024-25 Rabi season. The spatial distribution of Wheat crop, as of 31st March 2025, across the country is shown in Figure 2a and its state-wise coverage is shown in Figure 2b. Based on this analysis, the Wheat sown area derived from satellite data by 31st March 2025 stands at 330.8 lakh hectares, which is close to the statistics generated by Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (324.38 lakh hectares) as on February 4, 2025.

Additionally, the crop conditions, drought stress and the overall health of vegetation is monitored using remote sensing based Vegetation Health Index (VHI). The monthly monitoring of vegetation health condition (Figure 3) indicates that in January, crop conditions was generally stable, with timely sowing and satisfactory vegetative growth, especially in wheat growing regions like Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. During February, rising temperatures and rainfall deficits triggered apprehensions about heat-induced stress during grain filling stages, raising concerns over potential yield losses. However, by the end of March, Rabi crops across India showed remarkable resilience, supported by favourable weather in late February and March. By March, crop maturity progressed well under improved weather conditions, leading to optimistic projections. Overall, Rabi crop conditions have remained favourable through late March 2025. Rabi crop harvest commenced in December, showing a progressive increase through January, February, and March and 1st week of April 2025 (Figure 4).

Further, experimental assessment of Wheat production, at the national scale, is done by assimilating satellite-derived parameters (crop area, sowing date information, in-season crop condition) in a process-based crop growth simulation model at 5km × 5km spatial resolution. The multi-source data integration is expected to enhance the accuracy of production estimation at a finer spatial level, supporting precise and scalable estimation of Wheat production. The total Wheat production from eight major Wheat growing states of India as on 31st March 2025 is estimated to be 122.724 million tonnes. The spatial distribution of simulated Wheat yield across India for the 2024-25 Rabi season is shown in Figure 5a and Figure 5b.

This study demonstrates a methodology for near real-time, in-season monitoring of crop sown and harvested areas using multi-source satellite data. This approach also includes progressive mapping of Wheat crop area and production estimation. This pilot implementation of the framework serves as a Proof-of-Concept, highlighting the potential for operational scalability. The methodology is subject to further refinement and automation to enhance accuracy and timeliness, ultimately aiming to support informed decision-making in agricultural planning and food security at the national level.