Preparation of Map for Lands under Saffron Cultivation Using Timely Plant's Indicator Based Agronomic Calendar (Case study: Darbeghazi Village in Neyshabur province)

In recent years, cultivation of saffron in Nishabur city has been more attention by farmers due to low water requirements and adequate income. Planning for the marketing of this strategic product and the provision of agricultural inputs related to saffron requires that the information of area under its cultivation. In this research, using Landsat 8 satellite images and time difference methods based on plants phenology prepared to estimate the areas under cultivation of this product in Darbeghazi village of Nishabur. A satellite image of June related to the plant's dormant phase and an image in December related to vegetative growth stage prepared. Using different vegetation indices, saffron lands were distinguished from other agricultural products. In this research, the cultivated area of saffron in the studied area was 1229 hectares with a total accuracy of 82%. Also, the results of this study indicate that the accuracy of this method depends on the patch area of agricultural lands, so that in areas less than 2000 square meters, the user's precision is 62 percent, in lands with an area between 2000 and 5000 square meters, accuracy is 72 percent, in parts between half to one hectare precision is 81% and in lands more than one hectare, accuracy is 90%. The results of this research indicated that this method is suitable for estimating the area under cultivation of saffron in other parts of the country.