Using farm accountancy data to calibrate a crop model for climate impact studies

Klein, T. and Calanca, P. and Holzkämper, A. and et al, . (2012) Using farm accountancy data to calibrate a crop model for climate impact studies. Agricultural Systems, 111. pp. 23-33.

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Abstract

Process-based crop models are widely used in decision support systems or to assess impacts of climate change on agriculture at different spatial scales. They include crop and/or cultivar-specific parameters that need to be calibrated. However, the availability of reference data is often limited. An alternative is to use yield records from widely available Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The goal of this study was therefore to propose and test a crop model calibration procedure that makes use of FADN data. To account for the lack of management information in the FADN databases, the concept of ‘Meteorologically Possible Yield’ (MPY) was adopted. This concept is particularly relevant in the context of climate impact studies as MPYs are by definition only driven by climate variability. As an example, the procedure was applied to calibrate the generic crop model CropSyst for a region located in north-eastern Switzerland. Validation using data from a long-term field trial with detailed information on fertilizer applications showed that the proposed procedure provides robust simulation results and is therefore suitable for climate impact studies in regions where detailed experimental data are scarce. In a case study application, the transferability of the local calibration to a site with drier conditions was tested and simulation results for this new site were compared to results obtained using local recalibration. Results showed that predicted yields can differ substantially and the differences can be strongly amplified when impacts of climate change are considered. This highlights the need for adjusting model calibrations to local site conditions and for considering parameter uncertainties in climate impact studies.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: We would like to thank Roger Nelson and Claudio Stöckle for their support in the application of CropSyst and the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss for providing the climate data used in this study. This work is part of the AGWAM project (No. 406140_125957/1) financed by the Swiss National Foundation in the framework of the National Research Program 61.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Crop yield modeling, Farm accountancy data, Meteorologically Possible Yield, Model calibration, Parameter uncertainties
Author Affiliation: Agroscope Research Station Reckenholz-Tänikon ART, Air Pollution and Climate Group, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046 Zürich, Switzerland
Subjects: Atmosperic Science
Divisions: UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User: Mr Siva Shankar
Date Deposited: 20 Jun 2012 09:03
Last Modified: 20 Jun 2012 09:04
URI: http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/6131

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