Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1002/agj2.21680
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Crop yield estimation uncertainties at the regional scale for Saxony, Germany
Author Goihl, S.
Source Titel Agronomy Journal
Year 2024
Department MET
Volume 116
Issue 6
Page From 3097
Page To 3107
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t4b8gtj9v
Supplements https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1002%2Fagj2.21680&file=agj221680-sup-0001-SuppMat.zip
Abstract In times of climate change and global population growth, agricultural yield forecasts play an increasingly important role. For example, predicting yields as early as possible in the event of a drought is crucial for decision-makers in politics, government, and business. The aim of this study was to provide precise yield predictions at agricultural regions as early as possible with a minimum amount of weather data. Random forest models were used for this purpose. Although more than 290,000 datasets were available for analysis, all models tended to be heavily overfitting, which can be explained by the strong fragmentation of the input data by crop, region, and prediction time. The models reacted very differently to unknown datasets. It was found that the regionally trained models achieved lower (≥10%) relative root mean square errors (RRMSEs) than the supra-regionally trained models. Rapeseed and barley achieved good predictions. Wheat had good potential, too. Corn, potatoes, and sugar beet achieved often too high RRMSEs. The results showed that targeted model selection for each region and an extension of the training time series could enable very good regional yield forecasts for rapeseed and cereals in the future.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=29698
Goihl, S. (2024):
Crop yield estimation uncertainties at the regional scale for Saxony, Germany
Agron. J. 116 (6), 3097 - 3107 10.1002/agj2.21680