Crop plots are very small in China due to special farm-use rules. Image classification techniques are limited in crop acreage survey using remote sensing. In this paper

we analyze this problem and provide a substitute methodology to estimate crop acreage. In this methodology

crop stratification is fundamentd. Proportional of main crop types as well as physical factors of tempera- ture

precipitation

soil type and sun radiation are considered. There are about 11 strata in China at the first level based on physical factors

44 strata at the second level based on crop proportion and 102 strata at the third level based on arable land intensity. Two individual sampling frameworks are used. The cluster sampling is used to estimate the proportion of planted area on arable land with remote sensing data

mostly Landsat and Radarsat data

currently also ENVISAT ASAR data are used. The clusters are defined as a map sheet at a scale of 1:1:100 000 （about 1/16 Landsat TM scene）. And images are selected based on cluster sample randomly for each crop season. After atmospheric correction

geometric correction non-arable land masking

remotely sensed images are classified by ISODATA unsupervised classification

and then the planted areas are labeled by considering NDVI value. The planted area proportions are calculated for each stratum. The transect sampling framework is used to estimate the proportions of different crop type within planted area. To identify the crop proportion of a small parcel

field works should be used since it is impossible to make crop classification with remote sensing data cost-effectively. The transect sampling actually is a two-stage sampling. In the first stage

PSUs are selected randomly on a 4km×4km area frame. In the second stage

the selected PSUs are sampled only along the road within PSUs

called transect line. The sampling works in the field are to take pictures along the road within PSUs with 100 m buffer

and a GVG system is designed for this purpose. Proportions of every crop type are calculated for each stratum. Crop acreages are calculated under the support of current arable database. For every crop type

the planted acreage is the arable area multiply by planted proportion and crop type proportion of stratum. The estimation of early rice acreage in 2003 in China is presented as a case study. Results show this methodology is feasible. This methodology has adopted in China since 1998. And the experience shows that the stratification schema is efficiency

and the two individual sample frameworks can generate accurate estimation of crop acreage.