From field to atlas: Upscaling of location-specific yield gap estimates

Accurate estimation of yield gaps is only possible for locations where high quality local data are available, which are, however, lacking in many regions of the world. The challenge is how yield gap estimates based on location-specific input data can be used to obtain yield gap estimates for larger...

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Autores principales: Bussel, Lenny G. J. van, Grassini, Patricio, Wart, Justin van, Wolf, Joost, Claessens, Lieven, Yang, Haishun, Boogaard, H., Groot, Hugo de, Saito, Kazuki, Cassman, Kenneth G., Ittersum, Martin K. van
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/76584
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author Bussel, Lenny G. J. van
Grassini, Patricio
Wart, Justin van
Wolf, Joost
Claessens, Lieven
Yang, Haishun
Boogaard, H.
Groot, Hugo de
Saito, Kazuki
Cassman, Kenneth G.
Ittersum, Martin K. van
author_browse Boogaard, H.
Bussel, Lenny G. J. van
Cassman, Kenneth G.
Claessens, Lieven
Grassini, Patricio
Groot, Hugo de
Ittersum, Martin K. van
Saito, Kazuki
Wart, Justin van
Wolf, Joost
Yang, Haishun
author_facet Bussel, Lenny G. J. van
Grassini, Patricio
Wart, Justin van
Wolf, Joost
Claessens, Lieven
Yang, Haishun
Boogaard, H.
Groot, Hugo de
Saito, Kazuki
Cassman, Kenneth G.
Ittersum, Martin K. van
author_sort Bussel, Lenny G. J. van
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Accurate estimation of yield gaps is only possible for locations where high quality local data are available, which are, however, lacking in many regions of the world. The challenge is how yield gap estimates based on location-specific input data can be used to obtain yield gap estimates for larger spatial areas. Hence, insight about the minimum number of locations required to achieve robust estimates of yield gaps at larger spatial scales is essential because data collection at a large number of locations is expensive and time consuming. In this paper we describe an approach that consists of a climate zonation scheme supplemented by agronomical and locally relevant weather, soil and cropping system data. Two elements of this methodology are evaluated here: the effects on simulated national crop yield potentials attributable to missing and/or poor quality data and the error that might be introduced in scaled up yield gap estimates due to the selected climate zonation scheme. Variation in simulated yield potentials among weather stations located within the same climate zone, represented by the coefficient of variation, served as a measure of the performance of the climate zonation scheme for upscaling of yield potentials. We found that our approach was most appropriate for countries with homogeneous topography and large climate zones, and that local up-to-date knowledge of crop area distribution is required for selecting relevant locations for data collection. Estimated national water-limited yield potentials were found to be robust if data could be collected that are representative for approximately 50% of the national harvested area of a crop. In a sensitivity analysis for rainfed maize in four countries, assuming only 25% coverage of the national harvested crop area (to represent countries with poor data availability), national water-limited yield potentials were found to be over- or underestimated by 3 to 27% compared to estimates with the recommended crop area coverage of ≥50%. It was shown that the variation of simulated yield potentials within the same climate zone is small. Water-limited potentials in semi-arid areas are an exception, because the climate zones in these semi-arid areas represent aridity limits of crop production for the studied crops. We conclude that the developed approach is robust for scaling up yield gap estimates from field, i.e. weather station data supplemented by local soil and cropping system data, to regional and national levels. Possible errors occur in semi-arid areas with large variability in rainfall and in countries with more heterogeneous topography and climatic conditions in which data availability hindered full application of the approach.
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spelling CGSpace765842025-02-19T14:32:15Z From field to atlas: Upscaling of location-specific yield gap estimates Bussel, Lenny G. J. van Grassini, Patricio Wart, Justin van Wolf, Joost Claessens, Lieven Yang, Haishun Boogaard, H. Groot, Hugo de Saito, Kazuki Cassman, Kenneth G. Ittersum, Martin K. van climate change agriculture food security crop simulation yield potential climate stratification scaling Accurate estimation of yield gaps is only possible for locations where high quality local data are available, which are, however, lacking in many regions of the world. The challenge is how yield gap estimates based on location-specific input data can be used to obtain yield gap estimates for larger spatial areas. Hence, insight about the minimum number of locations required to achieve robust estimates of yield gaps at larger spatial scales is essential because data collection at a large number of locations is expensive and time consuming. In this paper we describe an approach that consists of a climate zonation scheme supplemented by agronomical and locally relevant weather, soil and cropping system data. Two elements of this methodology are evaluated here: the effects on simulated national crop yield potentials attributable to missing and/or poor quality data and the error that might be introduced in scaled up yield gap estimates due to the selected climate zonation scheme. Variation in simulated yield potentials among weather stations located within the same climate zone, represented by the coefficient of variation, served as a measure of the performance of the climate zonation scheme for upscaling of yield potentials. We found that our approach was most appropriate for countries with homogeneous topography and large climate zones, and that local up-to-date knowledge of crop area distribution is required for selecting relevant locations for data collection. Estimated national water-limited yield potentials were found to be robust if data could be collected that are representative for approximately 50% of the national harvested area of a crop. In a sensitivity analysis for rainfed maize in four countries, assuming only 25% coverage of the national harvested crop area (to represent countries with poor data availability), national water-limited yield potentials were found to be over- or underestimated by 3 to 27% compared to estimates with the recommended crop area coverage of ≥50%. It was shown that the variation of simulated yield potentials within the same climate zone is small. Water-limited potentials in semi-arid areas are an exception, because the climate zones in these semi-arid areas represent aridity limits of crop production for the studied crops. We conclude that the developed approach is robust for scaling up yield gap estimates from field, i.e. weather station data supplemented by local soil and cropping system data, to regional and national levels. Possible errors occur in semi-arid areas with large variability in rainfall and in countries with more heterogeneous topography and climatic conditions in which data availability hindered full application of the approach. 2015-06 2016-08-25T11:51:19Z 2016-08-25T11:51:19Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/76584 en Open Access Elsevier Van Bussel LGJ, Grassini P, Van Wart J, Wolf J, Claessens L, Yang H, Boogaard H, de Groot H, Saito K, Cassman KG, Van Ittersum MK. 2015. From field to atlas: Upscaling of location-specific yield gap estimates. Field Crops Research 177:98-108.
spellingShingle climate change
agriculture
food security
crop simulation
yield potential
climate stratification
scaling
Bussel, Lenny G. J. van
Grassini, Patricio
Wart, Justin van
Wolf, Joost
Claessens, Lieven
Yang, Haishun
Boogaard, H.
Groot, Hugo de
Saito, Kazuki
Cassman, Kenneth G.
Ittersum, Martin K. van
From field to atlas: Upscaling of location-specific yield gap estimates
title From field to atlas: Upscaling of location-specific yield gap estimates
title_full From field to atlas: Upscaling of location-specific yield gap estimates
title_fullStr From field to atlas: Upscaling of location-specific yield gap estimates
title_full_unstemmed From field to atlas: Upscaling of location-specific yield gap estimates
title_short From field to atlas: Upscaling of location-specific yield gap estimates
title_sort from field to atlas upscaling of location specific yield gap estimates
topic climate change
agriculture
food security
crop simulation
yield potential
climate stratification
scaling
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/76584
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