Connecting earth observation anomalies to farmer surveys for monitoring impacts of agricultural drought on rainfed rice yields in Nigeria

Abstract. Agricultural drought threatens rainfed rice production in Nigeria, where smallholder farmers depend on rainfall and have limited capacity to buffer climate shocks. While meteorological drought indices such as the SPI and the SPEI are widely used in national early warning systems, their ability to capture the impacts of droughts on rainfed rice yields at the smallholder field-level remains uncertain. This study evaluates the added value of earth observation (EO)-derived vegetation and soil moisture anomalies for monitoring and predicting drought impacts on rainfed rice yields in Nigeria. Satellite-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index anomalies (NDVIA) and Soil Water Index anomalies (SWIA) were derived using a zonal clustering and thresholding approach and combined with farmer survey and yield data collected from 146 rainfed rice farmers across four major rice-growing states between 2019 and 2024. Multivariate regression models were used to assess the relationships between EO indicator anomalies and annual yield changes, and the effects of different zonal clustering and anomaly thresholds on anomaly calculation were evaluated. Results show that SPI and SPEI explain a substantial share of yield variability in some years, particularly when droughts coincide with sensitive phenological stages. However, EO-based anomaly indicators, especially SWIA (maximum improved R² = 0.25), provide complementary information and significantly improve yield predictions in years when meteorological indices alone perform poorly. The timing of anomalies relative to rice phenology was critical, with droughts during panicle initiation having the largest yield impacts. Integrating EO-based vegetation and soil moisture anomaly indicators with existing meteorological indices can contribute to the monitoring of agricultural droughts and improve the operational relevance of early warning systems for rainfed rice farmers in Nigeria.