Yang Bangjie
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering,
Chaoyang District, 16 Dongsanhuan Beilu, Beijing 100026, China
Liu Haiqi
Department of Development Planning,
Ministry of Agriculture, Chaoyang District,
11 Nongzhanguan Nanli, Beijing 100026, China
1 Introduction
Remote sensing technology application for agriculture (Agro-RS) was introduced to China in the late 1970s. Twenty years on, there more than 200 scientists and technicians through out China works on resources survey, agro-ecological assessment, sown areas, crop condition and disaster monitoring, and yield estimation using remote sensing by Ministry of Agriculture. They have participated in national key projects of Agro-RS, international exchanges, resources and crop monitoring. In 1999, The Center for Remote sensing application of the Ministry of Agriculture organized sub-centers all over China to monitor sown area and production of winter wheat, corn and cotton using satellite remote sensing at national scale. The monitoring results are now a part of the official resources of agricultural information system of the Ministry.
The objective of this paper is to describe the development of a national operational system for crop and resources monitoring using remote sensing in China Ministry of Agriculture.
1.1 Center for Agricultural Remote Sensing Application
The Center for Agricultural Remote Sensing Application operates under the Department of Development Planning, China Ministry of Agriculture. The center is responsible for remote sensing application for agriculture. Its mission is to develop an operational system for agricultural resources, ecology, main crops and disaster monitoring at the national scale for government decision making to support the long-term sustainable development of agriculture in China.
In the tenth five-year Plan period (2001-2005), the operational systems will be set up at the provincial level through out China.
1.2 Organization and mission
The Center for Agricultural Remote Sensing Application is organized by the following four divisions.
- Division of General Operation (in the Institute of Natural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences).
- Division of Technical Training (in the College of Resources and Environmental China University of Agriculture).
- Division of Basic Information ( in the Center for Agricultural Resources Monitoring, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering)
- Sub-centers for Agricultural Remote Sensing. There are 8 sub-centers all over the China. The responsibilities of each division and sub-center are presented in Table 1.
Table 1 The Sub-centers and monitoring regions
| Region | Sub-center |
| Southwest China | Chengdu Sub-center for Agro-RS (Sichuan province) |
| Middle and lower reach Of Yangtse River | Nanjing Sub-center for Agro-RS (Jiangsu province) |
| Northeast Chian | Haerbin Sub-center for Agro-RS (Heilongjiang province) |
| Loess Plateau | North China Sub-center for Agro-RS (Shanxi province) |
| Inner Mongolia and Great Wall area | Institute of Grassland (Inner Mongolia) Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences |
| Gansu, Xinjiang and Tibet | Institute of Grassland Ecology (Gansu Province) |
| North China Plain | Center for Agricultural Resources Monitoring, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering |
| South China | Institute of Natural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences |
| Ocean Fishery | Chinese Academy of Aquaculture Sciences |
1.3 Problems
The main problems of agricultural remote sensing application in China are:
- Much of the previous works do not support applications at the national scale;
- Existing technology for operational application at the national scale is inefficient;
- Outdated computer equipment and software for data processing.
2 Prospect
2.1 Demands
China is a large country with 1.2 billion people and the per capita cultivated land is only 1/3 of the world average. Grain production is a national priority for agricultural development. It has an important influence on China’s sustainable development, modernization, world food market and the word food security.
China’s grain production is characterized by year to year fluctuations. Such variations are related to climate conditions, agricultural science and technology level, and market and investment development. The government needs timely and accurate grain production information for agricultural management and grain market decision making. The present agricultural statistic system of China, however, is incapable of providing such information in time. In addition, the quality of the data is unreliable, depending on the providers’ level of training and ability and often subjective. Such a system is not efficient for governments’ decision making in a market-driving economic system.
Remote sensing technology with GIS and GPS can provide timely, objective and scientifically reliable data at the national scale. The application of remote sensing for agriculture focuses on four main areas: crop monitoring; (2) resources and ecological monitoring; (3) disaster monitoring and assessment; (4) and precision farming.2.2 Guideline
Over the next five years, the main objectives of remote sensing application in agriculture are to promote development of the operational system using research achievements and to provide timely, accurate information for government decision making. In particular, precision farming based on 3S technology (remote Sensing, GIS and GPS) will be the main focus of agricultural modernization in China. More research projects will be supported to explore their potential applications in agriculture.
2.3 Mission
Over the next decade, a national monitoring system will be established intergrated remote sensing and ground investigation. When completed, the system will be able to monitor crop production, conditions of natural resources, natural disasters, and to provide information on precision farming. More importantly, information provided by the system will be timely and accurate for government decision making. The system has the following main tasks:
- Regular tasks
The regular tasks include sown area measurements, crop condition monitoring and yield estimation for main crops in China. Agricultural disasters (drought, flood, snow and grassland fire) forecasting and assessment are also the regularly works for remote sensing. - Periodic tasks
The periodic tasks include monitoring farmland area change, soil quality, production of grassland, ecological structure (land use and land cover), and major crop regions. - Special topics
These are special interesting topics of the government. For example, agricultural resources survey and ecological and environment monitoring in important areas, important agricultural projects monitoring and evaluating are all considered as special tasks.
3 Priorities
According to the tenth five-year plan of China, the following key projects will be supported to promote operational application at national scale in the next 15 years.
3.1 Main crop monitoring system using remote sensing
The objective of this project is to develop an operational system capable of monitoring crop sown area change, crop condition, and yield of winter wheat, corn, and rice, and forecasting gain yield at the national scale. The project will provide timely and accurate information for government decision making and promote space technology application in agriculture in China.
Remote sensing technology has successfully used for crop monitoring in North American and European countries and to a less extent in China. For 20 years, China has steadily developed its remote sensing technology and its application in Agriculture. Our task now is to improve the reliability and economic feasibility of the technology and to develop a robust operational system.
The technical indexes of the project are accuracy and time. The crop monitoring results must be reported during the growth season and before harvest. The deviation of the yield forecast should be less than 5%.
The research work includes sown areas change measurement, crop condition and disaster monitoring, yield estimation for main drops using remote sensing. Key technology include rapid measurement of sown area, definition of crop condition, classification and evaluation of disasters, model of yield estimation for different crops at the national scale, integration of remote sensing and ground measurements, regionization of monitoring area, sampling and statistic methods and information transfer and release systems.
3.2 Agricultural resources monitoring system using remote sensing
The objective of this project is to develop an agricultural resources and ecology monitoring system using remote sensing , GIS and GPS technology. It will provide reliable and timely agricultural resource and ecological information for the Ministry of Agriculture and other government departments and agencies. Many projects have been carried out over the past 20 years and large amount of data has been accumulated. In future, the focus will be to develop an integrated resources information system and its data update, information processing and application.
The main technical index include (1) a national system; (2) the scale 1:250,000 for national data base; (3) data updating every 5 years; (4) support information at any time.
The research work includes monitoring and analyzes methods for quality and quantity and ecological structure of farmland and pasture of China. The key technology includes historical data processing, computer database development and data updating, regionization, sampling and statistic methods.
3.3 Precision agriculture research
Traditionally, agriculture is a low profits industry due to the increasing costs of seed, water, fertilizer and pesticides. Pesticides are not only expensive, but also cause ecological problems in China. With information technology development, the information of soil water, fertilizer can be measured and fertilizer, water and pesticide can be used more efficiently. Precision agriculture technology makes it possible to save money and reduce pollution in agriculture using advanced information technology.
Precision agriculture has developed in recent years based on the sustainable development and information technology. Precision agriculture will be the 21-century’s agriculture.
The research works include (1) basic information acquirement such as soil type, soil quality, fertilizer, soil moisture and diseases and insect pests; (2) crop models and decision support system; (3) machinery supported by agricultural information. The key technology includes information acquirement using remote sensing at large scale, crop growth models and agricultural decision system.
4 Conclutions
- After 20 year’s development, the structure of an operational system for crop and resources monitoring using remote sensing at the national scale has been developed and from 1999 the monitoring results become a part of the official information resources of the Ministry of Agriculture.
- The priority of the future work is to support key projects and promote international cooperation to solve technical bottlenecks such as rice monitoring in southern China, drought, diseases and insect pests, precision farming technology. The objective of this work is to develop a reliable and timely operational system at the national scale to support China’s agricultural modernization and long term sustainability.
