You can use a ceptometer (http://www.decagon.com/products/canopy-atmosphere/canopy-measurements/lp-80-ceptometer-leaf-area-index-lai-fpar/). I think that will work well for sugar cane plantations if that is what you are referring to. You will need a 32bit platform to run the downloading software, I am sure you will need the data from the device after taking your measurements.

You can also try to use image analysis...so in this method I would suggest you try climbing on something that will take you to some level above your sugar cane canopy. Then using a fish-eye lens capture the overhead image of however many adequate number of images in a meaner that fulfils your intentions. Find image analysis software for hemispherical images. Analysis of these images using relevant software like your GLA, Caneye and others will provide you with LAI values for your sugar cane plantation.

Good luck,

basanda

Either you can use the LicorLAi2100 canopy analyser  to get the direct LAI or measure the leaf area of the plants in a known land area. LAI= Leaf area/ land area. If you do not have any instrument use the length x width x0.89 formula to estimate the total leaf area per Sq M of the land.  0.89 is a correction factor for the shape of the sugarcane leaf.

Dear Mahesh,

There are some modern devices for determining the leaf area of plants. Ceptometers and Canopy Analyzers, as referred before, are methods for estimating the LAI = leaf area index. The LI-COR model LI 3000 Leaf Area Meter (or similar models) is the standard device for measuring the leaf area. However, if you don' t have conditions to buy these equipments or if you want to obtain the leaf area in a fast and cheap way in the field (without cutting the leaves) you can calculate the area of each leaf by using its dimensions: length and width, or only the leaf length.

In the literature there are many papers describing methods and mathematic functions for calculating the leaf area of plants based only on measurements of leaf dimensions. They have been used largely on field experiments. They are very simple and precise in graminae such as maize, sugarcane, sorghum, and so on. You can easily establish a simple regression between the area of a single leaf and the product of leaf length and width, or else between the leaf area and the leaf length only.