Estimation of sugar beet productivity from reflection in the red and infrared spectral bands

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Abstract
The growth of healthy green crops is proportional to the solar radiation intercepted and the fraction of light intercepted by the crop f is the major source of variation in crop yields. A two band spectrophotometer was used to measure solar radiation reflected from crops of sugar beet in the red (600-660 nm) and the near-infrared (780-940 nm) bands. The ratio of infrared/red reflected fluxes increased with the percentage of the ground covered by healthy green leaves and was used to estimate f On the assumption that the efficiency with which crops convert radiant energy to biomass ϵ is constant, such measurements were used to determine future rates of growth and predicted the yield of an independently grown crop to within 6 per cent. Preliminary evidence suggests that spectral ratios may also be sensitive to changes in ϵ and the extension of these techniques to crops limited by disease or environmental stress is discussed.

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