Evaluation of specific location of litchi orchards using remote sensing and GIS techniques: a case study of Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, India

Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.), an important sub-tropical crop of Eastern India, is a source of income to the growers and employment generation. Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Assam account for about 64.2% of the total litchi production in India. However, the crop undergoes severe fluctuations both in production and consumption, thus facing an unreliable price in the market. Availability of reliable statistics in context to area of a particular crop grown, information for site suitability, market planning and export strategy is need of the hour. The main aim of this research paper is to provide information for litchi growing area using Remote Sensing-geographic information system (RS-GIS) based techniques in which satellite image of Indian remote sensing-linear imaging self-scanning (IRS-LISS-III) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were used under GIS domain for the analysis of suitable area and soils. The results showed that higher concentration of litchi orchards were found in low land of river basin in association with light textured soils of Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, India. From this study, it can be said that spectral responses of plants provide a clue for the signature capture of litchi orchards and also helps to map them.