A detailed methodology will be very helpful. How actually can a yield of a particular crop be estimated?
Hi Aditi
The most common way to estimate the crop yield in field is by means of `yield components`. For example, to maize the common way is: a) counting the number of plants in an known area; b) counting the number of corn ears in the same area; c) counting the number of seeds by ear; d) estimate the weight of seeds (usually grams per 100, or grams per 1000 seeds). Make samples in more than one place of the field. After this, is a mathematics question! (number of plants * number of ears * number of grains per ear * weight of grains). it This last component is a quite more difficult to do, mainly because we normally want to estimate the yield before the crop to be ready to harvest (and the seeds have a lot of water). Normally there is used averaged values of grain weight of the variety used in field. Each crop have distinct characteristic, and estimating the yield can be different as I show here. The key to you search how proceed with a particular crop is `yield components`. I hope give you some useful direction. Best regards, Giovani Theisen, Brazil.
In order to estimate crop yield for large areas, let's say a district or county, the best approach is to sample several fields where you can harvest small plots of less than 2 m2 in several locations selected randomly (e.g. by use of quadrant). Process your data taking into account the total area sampled and actual yield measured per farm. Convert the average yield per sampled area to yield per ha. You could now multiply the average yield per ha in sampled plots by the total number of ha cultivated in the area. There are several other methods but I am sure the above approach should give you a fairly close estimate of crop yield of a given location. The yield component analysis approach is also reliable but it's tedious to the agronomist. Crop physiologists also use apparent biomass duration (Z) or apparent leaf area index (LAI) duration (D) to estimate crop crop yield but, again this may not be very clear to the agronomist. I hope this information will be useful to you, Sarkar.
thank both of you so much.your inputs have been immensely helpful.
if a complete methodology based on Remote sensing technique is there It would be more helpful.
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