Spatial statistic to assess remote sensing acreage estimates: An analysis of sugarcane in São Paulo State, Brazil

After the launching of the Landsat-5/TM in the 1980´s, remote sensing based methods appeared as an alternative to obtain agricultural statistics. Using the case study of sugarcane acreage in São Paulo State, this paper compares, at a municipal scale, the differences between the remote sensing based (Canasat Project) and the official (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE) estimates of relative sugarcane acreage in 2010. This evaluation was carried out through graphical and spatial statistical analyses. Despite individual divergences, results indicated that on average Canasat and IBGE are in agreement. Moreover, large differences were rarely observed for municipalities with high sugarcane production. The remote sensing based method seems to be of great potential for agricultural statistics as it tends to maintain the consistence of current official agricultural statistics with the benefit of further improving estimates. The spatial statistical analyses showed to be effective to assess remote sensing based acreage estimates.