Geospatial analysis of Musa acuminata cultivation using multi-temporal remote sensing – Uthal Balochistan

Climate change has made researchers realize there is a need to focus on crops consumed staple, including fruits. Uthal is the districts headquarter of Lasbela and has long been known for its valuable banana production. Due to scarcity of rainfall, aquifers are not recharging significantly, causing slow decrease in the Musa acuminate (common name banana) crop. Banana is a significant source of earnings for local cultivators. The primary objective of the present study is the fluctuation assessment of banana cultivation of Uthal. The methodology has been designed in three steps. The first was ground-truthing with the help of GPS survey of banana cultivation areas, the second, classification of greenery and banana crops based on Landsat 8 images via EVI and NDVI remote sensing tools. The third and last step was combined both data along with government published data for the accuracy assessment of banana cultivation areas. As per extracted results from NDVI, the share of banana total cultivated land of the study area has declined concerning the overall cultivated land of the study area which reduced from 1115 to 879 ha between 2013 and 2022. Results identified that the EVI-NDVI-GPS model is more significant for monitoring agricultural activities. The present study is an advanced contribution to the scientific field of Banana cultivation in Uthal.