Crop Production Under Urbanisation: An Experimental Approach to Understand and Model Agricultural Intensification

Rural–urban transformation has major implications on agricultural land use. This is also the case in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, where farmers shift from low intensity subsistence agriculture under rainfed conditions to irrigated, market-oriented production of crops and vegetables. As little is known about the effects of this intensification on water use, nutrient leaching, losses of carbon and nitrogen, and soil quality, a long-term experiment was established under well-defined on-station conditions to generate a typical intensity gradient in an in situ laboratory of change. Measurements of key agronomic, soil-related, and meteorological parameters at high temporal and spatial resolution allow to assess externalities and efficiencies of resource use and to predict long-term consequences of intensification on agricultural sustainability. The two long-term rotation experiments established under rainfed and irrigated conditions also allow to collect and calibrate ground-based multi- and hyperspectral crop reflectance data needed for upscaling to high resolution satellite images that cover a North–South research transect across the rural–urban interface of Bengaluru.