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IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”, Hyderabad, India, 2002 
    
  
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NDVI IMAGE (02-04-1996) 
Fig 2. NDVI image of Adarsha micro-watershed 
under NDVI values range of 0.10 to 0.55 during the period 
1997-2001. 
Apart from improvement in vegetation cover, soil and water 
conservation measures employed in the watershed have also 
resulted among other changes, in arresting soil loss. 
Consequently, there has been an improvement in the soil health. 
The fact is supported by a shrinkage in the eroded lands during 
four years period (2,962ha in 1997 versus 2,797ha in 2001). 
Another interesting feature that was noticed in the watershed is 
the fallowing of agricultural lands during kharif (rainy) season. 
The major portion of these fallow lands are observed during 
rainy season especially in rain-fed agricultural situations, not 
withstanding adequate rainfall. This phenomenon is based on 
farmer’s perception that in the event of early withdrawal of 
monsoon and late harvesting of rainy season crops, adequate 
reserves of moisture may not be available in the soil for sowing 
operations of subsequent season (rabi) crop which will 
ultimately affect the crop yield. If optimally utilized, these 
land can contribute significantly to improving crop production. 
3.0 IDENTIFICATION OF KHARIF FALLOWS 
Identification of kharif fallows aiming at their optimal 
utilization was a sequel to the study carried out in Lalatora 
micro-watershed, which was extended to entire state of Madhya 
Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh, in Central India, is endowed with 
Vertisols and associated soils. With assured rainfall (700 to 
1200 mm/ yr) the area is considered as heartland of dryland 
agriculture. In the Semi arid tropics where rainfall is often 
extremely erratic and execution of tillage operations can be 
difficult, yield from rainy season crops can be precarious. The 
threats of mid-season drought and other weather-induced losses 
at critical stages of plant growth contribute to the risks 
681 
involved in growing a rainy.season crop. Rainy season (kharif) 
fallowing results in underutilization of land, water and human 
resource and when monsoons arrive in the form of sporadic, 
high intensity showers, a significant portion of the annual 
rainfall endowment can be lost through surface runoff causing 
soil erosion owing to absence of protective cover, and economy 
of the farmers. 
3.1 Database 
The mapping of kharif fallow land was accomplished using 
the IRS-1C/1D Wide Field Sensor (WiFS) data for the period 
Februay-March2000, and September 2001, and October 2001 
(Table- 1). 
3.2 Approach 
The approach essentially involves preparation of the mosaic of 
WiFS digital data covering entire state, preliminary digital 
analysis, ground truth collection, map finalization and 
generation of area statistics. Gaussian maximum likelihood per- 
pixel classifier was used to generate information on fallow 
lands from multi-temporal IRS-1C/ID . WiFS data. For 
identification of kharif fallows a deductive approach involving 
delineation of agricultural land and forests from temporal 
satellite data was adopted. Three sets of satellite data 
corresponding to three periods, namely mid- kharif, late kharif 
and rabi season were used. While mid-kharif season satellite 
data provide the information on agricultural lands, which were 
lying unutilized along with those agricultural lands that have 
been supporting kharif crops, the satellite data of rabi season, 
on the other hand, exhibits the spatial distribution pattern of 
lands supporting rabi crops. These lands include the areas, 
which were lying fallow during kharif season, and are now 
supporting crops. Contrastingly, the satellite data acquired 
during late kharif season exhibit the agricultural lands that 
were lying fallow during kharif season and the areas where 
kharif crops were taken. 
3.3 Results and Discussion 
An estimated 18.29 lakh ha of land have been observed to be 
lying fallow during rainy season. Such lands could be utilised 
for raising short-duration crops like soybean during kharif 
(rainy) season followed by wheat or chickpea during rabi 
(winter) season. The spatial distribution of fallow lands (kharif- 
fallow) in Vidisha and Guna districts is given in Figure-3 and 
their spatial extent in Table- 2. As could be seen from Table- 2, 
fallow lands are confined mostly to Vidisha district (2,80,649 
ha) followed by Sagar and Guna districts with an estimated area 
of 2,40,739 ha and  1,84,100 ha, respectively. Balaghat 
districts accounts for the minimum area under fallow lands 
(Table-2).