A diagnostic method for assessing regional variations in crop yield

Thierry Doré (1) , Michel M. Sebillotte (1) , Jean-Marc Meynard (1)

1 Agronomie

The diagnosis of agronomic problems in cropping systems is often limited to surveys among farmers, in which they are asked about the problems they encounter. This paper describes an alternative method of diagnosis to understand the variations in crop yield on a regional scale. It is based on multi-annual on-farm surveys, where data are collected on the cropping system, environment and crop-yield build-up. The different steps of the method: choice of study area and of farmers' fields; choice of methods; design of further experiments; and diagnosis itself, plus the way they are linked to each other, are developed and discussed.

Mots clés: cropping system; Yield gap; crop management; Key-words: Agronomic diagnosis; crop yield variations

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Thierry Doré, Michel M. Sebillotte, Jean-Marc Meynard. A diagnostic method for assessing regional variations in crop yield. Agricultural Systems, 1997, 54 (2), pp.169-188. ⟨10.1016/S0308-521X(96)00084-4⟩. ⟨hal-01370563⟩