Weather indices of agricultural production in the Netherlands 1948-1989. 1. General methodology and the arable sector.

Abstract

The methodology of deriving weather indices for different types of agricultural production is outlined. The indices so derived should be useful for economic research. Indices are derived for wheat, barley, oats, rye, culinary potatoes, industrial potatoes, sugarbeet, legume crops, oilseed rape, flax, fodder beet and silage maize in the Netherlands for each year from 1948 to 1989. The most extreme variations in the indices were <23%, the av. yield increase/year was 1.3% and the annual standard deviation due to the weather was 6%. Although the relative influence of the weather is decreasing slightly, the levels of yield fluctuations are continuing to increase. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)