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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
A crop model and fuzzy rule based approach for optimizing maize planting dates in Burkina Faso, West Africa
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Volume 53, No. 3, Year 2014
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Description
In sub-Saharan Africa, with its high rainfall variability and limited irrigation options, the crop planting date is a crucial tactical decision for farmers and therefore a major concern in agricultural decision making. To support decision making in rainfed agriculture, a new approach has been developed to optimize crop planting date. The General Large-AreaModel for Annual Crops (GLAM) has been used for the first time to simulate maize yields in West Africa. It is used in combination with fuzzy logic rules to give more flexibility in crop planting date computation when compared with binary logic methods. Agenetic algorithmis applied to calibrate the cropmodel and to optimize the planting dates at the end. The process for optimizing planting dates results in an ensemble of optimized planting rules. This principle of ensemble members leads to a time window of optimized planting dates for a single year and thereby potentially increases the willingness of farmers to adopt this approach. The optimized planting date (OPD) approach is compared with two well-established methods in sub-Saharan Africa. The results suggest earlier planting dates across Burkina Faso, ranging from10 to 20 days for the northern and central part and less than 10 days for the southern part. With respect to the potential yields, the OPD approach indicates that an average increase in maize potential yield of around 20% could be obtained in water-limited regions in Burkina Faso. The implementation of the presented approach in agricultural decision support is expected to have the potential to improve agricultural risk management in these regions dominated by rainfed agriculture and characterized by high rainfall variability. © 2014 American Meteorological Society.
Authors & Co-Authors
Waongo, Moussa
Germany, Augsburg
Universität Augsburg
Germany, Karlsruhe
Karlsruher Institut Für Technologie
Laux, Patrick
Germany, Karlsruhe
Karlsruher Institut Für Technologie
Traoré, Seydou B.
Niger, Niamey
Agrhymet Regional Centre
Sanon, Moussa
Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou
Institut de L'environnement et de Recherches Agricoles
Kunstmann, Harald
Germany, Augsburg
Universität Augsburg
Germany, Karlsruhe
Karlsruher Institut Für Technologie
Statistics
Citations: 47
Authors: 5
Affiliations: 4
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1175/JAMC-D-13-0116.1
ISSN:
15588424
e-ISSN:
15588432
Research Areas
Environmental
Study Locations
Multi-countries
Burkina Faso