Table 6 Comparison between four crop yield forecasting systems: CGMS-Maroc, CropWatch, USDA–FAS, and FASAL systems
CGMS-Maroc | CropWatch | USDA-FAS (Crop explorer) | FASAL | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
References | [9] | [159] | [146] | [105] | |
Modeling approach | Empirical models (multiple regression, machine learning and similarity analysis) | Empirical models (multiple regression and similarity analysis) | Empirical and mechanistic models | ||
Crop | Cereal crops | Cereal crops and soybean | Cereal crops, soybean, cotton, etc | Cereal crops, cotton, sugarcane, rapeseed, mustard, etc | |
Mission | - Yield forecasting - Monitoring crop growth and climate indicators | - Monitoring agro-climatic indicators, - Crop mapping - Yield forecasting, - Analysis of phyto-sanitary conditions | - Monitoring crop, soil, and climate indicators, - Crop mapping, - Yield forecasting, -Drought risk assessment | Monitoring crop growth and development indicators, - Crop mapping, - Yield forecasting, -Water balance | |
Yield predictors | Meteorological input parameters | -Gridded data sets from ground stations: temperatures, rainfall, evapo-transpiration | Satellite-based: temperatures, rainfall, photosynthetically active radiation, and land surface temperature + Snow coverage in Crop Explorer | -Station-based: temperatures and rainfall -Satellite-based: insolation and land surface temperature | |
Other remote sensing products | Vegetation indices (NDVI, LAI, FAPAR, FCOVER), rainfall estimates | Vegetation indices (NDVI, LAI etc.) + Soil moisture | |||
Auxiliary parameters | Land cover map, crop calendar | Systems use some common auxiliary parameters: crop type (or land cover maps), crop calendar, crop development scales, soil information, DEM, etc | |||
Systems’ scales | - Administrative level, - National level | - Administrative level, - National level, - Global level | - Administrative level, - National level | ||
Schedule to release system findings | Every 10 days, during the growing season | Quarterly (every 4 months) and annually | Monthly and numerous parameter maps and charts updated every 10 days | Depends on crop species. Overall, in early season, mid-season, and pre-harvest | |
Area covered by the system | Morocco | - Global for Agro-climatology, - Crop production and yield estimation for 31 countries | Global | India | |