Estimation of Rice Yield in Paddy Damaged by Rice Blast Using UAV Imagery

Abstract

Kyung-Do Lee https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8870-9978Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has been usefully used to produce precise crop information on farmland. The purpose of this study is to develop a technology for estimating rice yield distribution in paddy field damaged by rice blast using UAV imagery. We analyzed the change of sensing information according to disease occurrence by using UAV images for rice paddy in 2021. The correlation between NDVI vegetation index and rice yield showed a high value of 0.8 or higher from booting stage to ripening stage except for heading stage. It means that UAV image reflected the change of rice yield according to rice blast. In addition, it was found that in order to evaluate the effect of rice disease using UAV image, it was necessary to select a sensor and vegetation index considering the change in spectral reflection next to the disease characteristics. This study is expected to be helpful in establishing object damage survey of agricultural disaster insurance and farming plan.