Measurement of Factors Affecting Crop Production
Thesis/Dissertation Embargo Procedures
This paper is concerned with characterizing the effect that environmental and induced factors have on crop yields. In this sense, a framework is outlined which can be used to estimate the characteristics of the probability distribution function (pdf) of crop yields which may not be normal or log-normal as usually is assumed. The paper is methodological in nature, but several pieces of empirical work are being done under the sponsorship of the Utah Experiment Station, particularly modeling alfalfa yield response to changes in pest control and environmental factors which influence alfalfa yields. The methodological framework developed here is in the spirit of recent work completed by Heck, et a1. (1982,1983,1984) and Adams, et al. (1984) in the area of environmental factor impacts on crop yields, and the doseresponse modeling of Rawlings and Cure (1983).