C3 vs C4 in Kharif season 2026 peak growth stages- analysis through Indian NISAR S-band Data – a Comparative Approach

The growth of the kharif crops are observed in the current growing season. There is focus on crop diversification under the centre’s major initiatives with the ICAR, with financial incentives to conserve the ground water table which is depleting at an alarming rate. The peak growing phases is effectively picked up by S-band (3.2 GHz, 9.4 cm wavelength) NISAR data- in systematic coverage of 240 km swath at 10m resolution achieving the high resolution at larger swath utilizing the SWEEPSAR technique first time globally. Here GCOV- L2 product dual-pol data was processed and HH stack is used here for further analysis. The C3- crops dominantly paddy and kharif pulses fields corresponding to the bright cyan- blue colour in the FCC as contrast to the stable pinkish signature for the C4 crop zones, dominantly sugarcane belt. C3 crops generally thrive in mild and humid temperature associated with first stable 3-carbon compound (3-phosphoglycerate (3-PGA), in contrast to the C4 crops that genarally thrive well in hot and dry climate with first stable 4-carbon compound Produces a 4-carbon compound called oxaloacetate (which converts to malate). C4 crops are more water efficient and has minimal photo-respiration thus thrives best in hotter regions and are climate resilient.