Estimating Potato Tuber Yield in a Sub-tropical Environment with Simple Radiation-Based Models

Abstract

SummaryDry matter and tuber yields of potato grown in a sub-tropical environment were estimated employing simple radiation-based models which require meteorological information on air temperature and solar radiation. Two versions of the MacKerron and Waister (1985) model, in which estimation of dry matter accumulation relies on a single composite parameter, radiation use efficiency (RUE), were compared with the Versteeg and Van Keulen (1986) model, which explicitly accounts for temperature and radiation effects on dry matter accumulation. In the original version of the MacKerron and Waister model, a linear change in the radiation interception factor with leaf area index is assumed; in the modified version an exponential change in the interception factor with leaf area index is considered. The accumulation of dry matter estimated from all three models was close to the measured values throughout the growing season, but estimates of tuber yield differed widely. Our analysis showed that the best agreement with measured values was obtained using the MacKerron and Waister linear model with RUE values adjusted according to the incident radiation level.Estimatión del rendimiento del tubérculo de la patata