Monitoring of Black Pepper Growth at Different Elevation using Ground Data and NDVI Time Series

Abstract

Implementation of remote sensing in agriculture helps to enhance crop growth monitoring especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. To enhance black pepper growth condition, a study was conducted at two study sites in Bintulu, Sarawak. Hence, this study aims (i) to construct a black pepper growth monitoring at different levels of elevation in Suka Farm (SF) and Taime Farm (TF); and (ii) to integrate limited ground data and NDVI time series from Landsat 8OLI for black pepper growth monitoring. Elevation maps were generated using Natural Neighbor (NN) based on the ground data analysed using ArcGIS 10.4 Software. Three elevation levels were classified into the lower, middle, and upper levels. Observational ground data and NDVI time series of Landsat 8 OLI were calculated using SAS 9.4 software. All parameters then correlating with the elevation levels using Pearson Correlation Coefficient. Optimum growth of black pepper growth in SF and TF was identified at an elevation range between 39m–50m. The NDVI time series also indicated equivalent results as the ground data. This study proposed that the elevation of an area gives a significant impact on black pepper growth. Besides, the NDVI time series of Landsat 8 OLI was feasible for monitoring black pepper growth.