Anhui Province was studied by adoption of MODIS data as the data source. First, based on vegetation index products of the 16d synthetic MODIS normal difference from 2011 to 2018, ENVI was adopted to extract the rape planting area; second, with the help of Google images, the multi-phase rape planting area in Anhui Province was extracted by the visual interpretation and NDVI data. Based on these, the extraction results of the rape planting area by MODIS-NDVI data were verified, and the temporal and spatial changes were analyzed. Compared with statistical monitoring data, the accuracy of extracting rape planting area by using MODIS data can reach 84.5%. Via practice and verification, we concluded that it was feasible and reliable to extract the rape planting area in Anhui province by MODIS-NDVI data and thesis method. Our study results can provide basic data for relevant government agencies to better understand the crop production and agricultural development situation, as well as for other provinces to study the rape planting area extraction.