Methodology to generate yield maps of maize crops

In central Mexico, specifically in the State of Mexico maize is cultivated under different technological regimes ranging from traditional rain water dependency and native seeds producing yields of under 1.0 ton/ha, up to irrigation and improved seeds regimes with yields above 12.0 ton/ha. The average state yield harvested area for this crop in the past 10 years has been 549, 000 ha with an average yield of 3.22 tons/ha and an overall average of 1.8 million tons of grain. To obtain the cultivated area, SPOT panchromatic and multispectral satellite images were processed over the growth and development stages of the plants. In the cultivated areas sample yield data were collected, geo-referencing the collection sites with geographic information management products. These data were spatially represented via interpolation. The final products were yield maps at different cartographic scales.