Alfalfa yield estimation using Sentinel-2 satellite images- a case study in Magsal Agricultural and Production Company (Qazvin)

Over the past several decades, many vegetation indices have been developed for crop yield estimation, each being sensitive to different levels of crop density and leaf area index, based on the bands and the algebraic formulas used in its design. However, the study of some perennial crops such as alfalfa, which are harvested several times annually, is very complicated and has received less attention. Therefore, in this paper, the most important vegetation indices developed to estimate alfalfa yield are using Sentinel-2 time series images. In this research, 144 alfalfa samples were collected periodically in a destructive way from alfalfa farms of Magsal Agricultural and Production Company (Qazvin) near the time of satellite pass, and then the efficiency of 10 of the most famous vegetation indices to estimate alfalfa yield was evaluated based on Sentinel-2 images. The results of this research showed that the estimated alfalfa yield using the index had the highest correlation ( ) and the lowest root-mean-square-error (RMSE = 0.316 ) compared to the field data collected in the middle of August. In addition, the results showed that the red edge indices did not solve the saturation problem of vegetation indices and that the green vegetation indices were more capable of estimating alfalfa yield than the red edge indices.