GAEZ Dryland agro-climatic potential yields

Crop cultivation potential describes the agronomically possible upper limit to produce individual crops under given agro-climatic, soil and terrain conditions and applying specific management assumptions and agronomic input levels. Soil moisture conditions together with other climate characteristics (radiation and temperature) during different crop development stages are used in an eco-physiological crop growth model to calculate potential biomass production and yield. The constraint-free crop yields calculated in the AEZ biomass model reflect yield potentials with regard to temperature and radiation regimes prevailing in each grid-cell. Maximum biomass and yields depend on the timing of the crop growth cycle (crop calendar) and are separately calculated for irrigated and rain-fed conditions. Crop specific requirements are matched with temperature regimes prevailing in individual grid-cells. Matching is tested for the full range of possible starting dates. For rain-fed conditions the crop calendar resulting in the highest expected (water-limited) yield is selected to represent maximum biomass and agro-climatic potential yield of the respective crop in a particular grid-cell. The estimation of yield losses due to water stress is based on crop-specific water balances. Yield estimation for irrigation conditions assumes that irrigation is scheduled such that no yield-reducing crop water deficits occur during the crop growth cycle. Theme 3 provides crop-wise information about: (1) Agro-Climatic Yield, (2) Constraint Factors, (3) Growth Cycle Attributes, and (4) Land Utilization Types (LUT) Selection.