ISHS Acta Horticulturae 313: III International Symposium on Computer Modelling in Fruit Research and Orchard Management
DEVELOPMENT, VALIDATION AND INDUSTRY UPTAKE OF A COMPUTER BASED CROP LOADING MODEL KIWIMOD |
| Authors: | T.M. Mills, T.A. Atkins |
| Abstract:
KIWIMOD is a decision support tool that has been developed over the last few years by the Biological Modelling Unit (Atkins 1990). The biological model underlying KIWIMOD represents the relationship that exists between cropload, fruit size and total yield of kiwifruit vines. This biological information is then integrated with financial information such as price schedules, and orchard cost structures ; and industry data such as grade standards to give the user information on property revenue and gross margins. Initially the biological model was based on a relatively small database containing information from one region only with limited validation across other regions (McAneney and Richardson et al. 1989). During the 1990/91 season we conducted crop loading trials in an important kiwifruit producing area in order to isolate and evaluate the sources of variation which we had anticipated but not found, in other trials. These trials highlighted the need to systematically study the sources of variation in crop loading responses, and indicated that real differences in croploading responses do exist between properties, regions and possibly seasons. The next steps in the development of KIWIMOD are to collate a database of croploading response trials from throughout New Zealand in order to refine and validate the biological model, and to promote KIWIMOD to the industry so it may gain acceptance and open 2-way communications on Decision Support. This paper discusses validation and industry acceptance issues | |
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