Winter rice (grown during June/July to November/December) which dominates the rice cultivation in the study region is
mapped as shown in Fig. 2(a). Overall, about 5414 ha of lands (54% of total study area) are under rice cultivation. The
remaining area, classified as non-crop area, is shared by vegetation, water body, rural settlement etc. The cropland and
non-cropland are distributed in some distinct spatial patterns which are highlighted below. In rural set up of Assam, rice fields are fragmentally distributed among other land uses (rural settlements, rural forest land) and hence area under rice varies from field to field. Such variation also observed in the present study area. Altogether 529 rice crop polygons with size ranging from 1 ha to 300 ha are spatially distributed in the 10,000 ha study area. Sizes of crop patch and hence distributions of locations of residue availability are important consideration for planning. The distribution of patches with varying extent is shown in Fig. 2(b). About 28.50% of total rice cropland is shared by only 6 crop patches with their individual sizes varying between 235 and 318 ha (Table 2). Further, it is also seen from Table 2 that, 30.27% of total cropland is shared by 11 rice crop patches with sizes varying between 100 and 200 ha. On the other hand, the number of smaller patches (>1 ha) are 348 covering only 93 ha cropland.