Agricultural Droughts Monitoring of Aceh Besar Regency Rice Production Center, Aceh, Indonesia – Application Vegetation Conditions Index using Sentinel-2 Image Data

Monitoring the agricultural drought of paddy rice fields is a crucial aspect of preparing for proper action in maintaining food security in Indonesia. The Aceh Province is one of Indonesia’s national rice production centers, especially Aceh Besar Regency; it includes three central districts; Indrapuri, Kuta Cot Glie, and Seulimeum. Satellite-Sentinel 2A data have been tested to monitor the drought levels of around 2,803 Ha in the three districts in this study. This study aimed to determine the drought level in Indrapuri, Kuta Cot Glie, and Seulimeum districts, Aceh Besar Regency’s paddy rice fields using Sentinel-2A data imagery. The vegetation conditions index (VCI) of Sentinel-2 data was utilized to identify a vegetative drought level in the area for the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 growing seasons. The vegetation inertia index is derived from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The results show that the VCI looked volatile, but the trendline increased by four percent, from 92.56 in July 2019 to 96.08 in July 2021. Most areas on the dates investigated found that the no drought category was still dominant. The designated data analyzed found that the June 2022 data tend to be distributed to the drought in extreme, severe, moderate, and mild increases compared to the previous data investigated. This figure shows an increasing drought in the study area, and the average drought index is in the category of mild drought. In addition, there has been a trendline decline in the value of NDVI in recent years, causing agricultural land for paddy rice fields to be slightly vulnerable to drought.