Application of PAR in Estimation of Agricultural Productivity
Methodology
The climate-based productivity estimation was first carried out, as detailed in figure 1 below. The rain-fed productivity was adjustment for soil and topographic characteristics and the availability of irrigation was considered.
Figure 1 Flow diagram of Climate-based Agricultural Productivity Estimation
In the second part of the study, the photosynthetically active radiation that was available during the growing period of the crop was introduced at the box of 'estimation of photosynthetic parameters'. The photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) incident on the surface, estimated from the NIMBUS-7 TOMS satellite, was used.
Discussion
The introduction of the satellite-derived PAR data improved the estimation of yields. This may be attributed to a more realistic expression of the vegetation canopy cover that was not at al considered during the climate-based estimation. Also, it may be because the
