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Advances in Modelling the Potato Crop: Sufficiency and Accuracy Considering Uses and Users, Data, and Errors

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Abstract

When we consider complex, multi-step processes such as crop growth or the progress of a disease then simple mathematical functions are inadequate to describe them and we generally use some kind of mathematical model. The commonest form in use is one that we call a simulation model although there are other forms of model such as Rule-based, (e.g. Gu et al. AI Appl 10:13–24, 1996), Bayesian (Gold, Plant Disease Epidemiol 4:84–122, 1989) and ‘fuzzy’ (Burrough, J Soil Sci 40:477–492, 1989), depending upon the application. Models may sometimes be combined into packages that we call decision support systems. This paper will consider simulation modelling and also the combination of complementary models. Mathematical models of the potato crop have been devised, in a range of sophistication, over a long period of years and a quite proper question is: “Where next? What are the developments that are sought or, more importantly, that are needed?”

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  1. Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA, UK

    D. K. L. MacKerron

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MacKerron, D.K.L. Advances in Modelling the Potato Crop: Sufficiency and Accuracy Considering Uses and Users, Data, and Errors. Potato Res. 51, 411–427 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11540-008-9108-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11540-008-9108-z

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