<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Wheat is one of the modern world’s staple food sources. Its production requires good environmental conditions, which are not always available. However, agricultural practices may mitigate the effects of unfavorable weather or poor-quality soils. The influence of environmental and crop management variables on yield can be evaluated only based on representative long-term data collected on farms through well-prepared surveys.The authors of this work analyzed variation in winter wheat yield among 3868 fields in western and eastern Poland for 12 years, as dependent on both soil/weather and crop management factors, using the classification and regression tree (CART) method. The most important crop management deficiencies which may cause low wheat yields are insufficient use of fungicides, phosphorus deficiency, non-optimal date of sowing, poor quality of seeds, failure to apply herbicides, lack of crop rotation, and use of cultivars of unknown origin not suitable for the region. Environmental variables of great importance for the obtaining of high yields include large farm size (10 ha or larger) and good-quality soils with stable pH. This study makes it possible to propose strategies supporting more effective winter wheat production based on the identification of characteristics that are crucial for wheat cultivation in a given region.</p></abstract>

Wheat is one of the modern world’s staple food sources. Its production requires good environmental conditions, which are not always available. However, agricultural practices may mitigate the effects of unfavorable weather or poor-quality soils. The influence of environmental and crop management variables on yield can be evaluated only based on representative long-term data collected on farms through well-prepared surveys.The authors of this work analyzed variation in winter wheat yield among 3868 fields in western and eastern Poland for 12 years, as dependent on both soil/weather and crop management factors, using the classification and regression tree (CART) method. The most important crop management deficiencies which may cause low wheat yields are insufficient use of fungicides, phosphorus deficiency, non-optimal date of sowing, poor quality of seeds, failure to apply herbicides, lack of crop rotation, and use of cultivars of unknown origin not suitable for the region. Environmental variables of great importance for the obtaining of high yields include large farm size (10 ha or larger) and good-quality soils with stable pH. This study makes it possible to propose strategies supporting more effective winter wheat production based on the identification of characteristics that are crucial for wheat cultivation in a given region.

Use of classification and regression trees (CART) for analyzing determinants of winter wheat yield variation among fields in Poland

Department of Experimental Design and Bioinformatics

Warsaw University of Life Science – SGGW

Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute – National Research Institute (IHAR-PIB)

Institute of Economic and Social Sciences

Department of Ecology, Climatology, and Air Protection, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Land Surveying

Biometrical Letters

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Wheat is one of the modern world’s staple food sources. Its production requires good environmental conditions, which are not always available. However,...

Use of classification and regression trees (CART) for analyzing determinants of winter wheat yield variation among fields in Poland

Published Online: Dec 14, 2018

Page range: 197 - 214

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bile-2018-0013

Keywords
classification and regression trees (CART), determinants of yield, winter wheat, yield modeling, farm data

© 2018 M. Iwańska et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Use of classification and regression trees (CART) for analyzing determinants of winter wheat yield variation among fields in Poland

Published Online: Dec 14, 2018

Page range: 197 - 214

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bile-2018-0013

Keywordsclassification and regression trees (CART), determinants of yield, winter wheat, yield modeling, farm data

© 2018 M. Iwańska et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
classification and regression trees (CART), determinants of yield, winter wheat, yield modeling, farm data