The Remote Sensing Based Hungarian Crop Production Forecast Program (Cropmon) and its Other Applications

The Hungarian Agricultural Remote Sensing Program led to a concise methodology that could further be applied operationally. First the main results of a substantial R&D investment and methodology plus validation results are summarized. The crops area assessment, through the processing of multitemporal Landsat and IRS-1C/1D data proved to be efficient at county level because of the accuracy of thematic classification. The novel combined high resolution images + NOAA AVHRR series based crop yield forecast methodology performed well for the major crops (8) at county level. Based on the experiences of the first 5 operational years (from 1997) a general evaluation on the Operational Crop Monitoring and Production Forecast Program (CROPMON) is given. The CROPMON system is a good platform for additional projects implementation as in the case of waterlog assessment and impact analysis (1998–) or flood and drought monitoring (2000–), the recent ragweed control program (2004–) and the remote sensing control of area-based agricultural subsidies (CwRS), that has been carried out operationally for nine years in 2008 in Hungary.