Information on the distribution of paddy rice fields is essential for food security and water resource management. Remote sensing is a technique that can be used to obtain rice production information from space. In the present study, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images were used to evaluate the relationship between the rice spectral (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)) of Landsat images and rice yield. The results indicated that the relationship between the

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... VI and rice age was best described by a quadratic equation, and R 2 values ranging from 0.916 to 0.973 were obtained. Three growth variables were evaluated in the present study, and the total NDVI (∑NDVI) showed the strongest exponential relationship to rice yield (R 2 = 0.9203) and the lowest standard error of estimation (SE = 0.076). Alternatively, NDVI max and Age NDVImax presented lower R 2 values (0.8919 and 0.5776, respectively) and higher SEs of estimation (0.089 and 0.175, respectively). Thus, the results indicate that rice yield can be estimated from the following equation: y = 0.4745e 0.0504x , where y is the rice yield and x is the ∑NDVI.