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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Wind Erosion and Water Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #186809
Title: 'ICARDA AGROCLIMATIC TOOL' VISUAL BASIC APPLICATION CD-ROM

Author
item Mauget, Steven
item DE PAUW, EDDY - ICARDA

Submitted to: Laboratory Publication
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/21/2005
Publication Date: 10/21/2005
Citation: Mauget, S.A., De Pauw, E. 2005. 'ICARDA Agroclimatic Tool' Visual Basic Application[computer program]. Lubbock, Texas: U.S. Department of Agriculture, ARS.

Interpretive Summary: The mandate area of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) extends from northwest Africa to central Asia, includes 26 countries, and is home to more than 755 million people. The growing regions of those countries have diverse climates, but very little climate information is available to ICARDA plant breeders. To meet that need a newly developed Windows-based PC application provides those agricultural scientists with high-resolution climate information. The database from which the application derives climate information from the daily station data of ~ 650 meteorological stations. From that daily data the software’s graphical user interface presents climate statistics at user-selected latitude-longitude coordinates, calculated over any periods within a summer or winter growing season. The statistics reported include crop evapotranspiration estimates, the probability that cumulative rainfall and growing degree days will be greater than user specified values, the probability that minimum and maximum daily temperatures will exceed user-defined temperature thresholds, and the probability of heat stress, cold stress and rain-free periods of varying duration. By providing information about climate-related stress during critical periods of the growing season, this application may be an important tool in developing crop varieties that are basically ‘designed’ for the climate conditions of the ICARDA growing areas.

Technical Abstract: The mandate area of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) extends from northwest Africa to central Asia, includes 26 countries, and is home to more than 755 million people. The growing regions of those countries are marked by climate diversity, but very little climate information is available to ICARDA plant breeders. To meet that need a newly developed Windows-based PC application provides those agricultural scientists with high-resolution climate information. The database from which the application derives climate information required the generation of weather generator parameters from the station data of ~ 650 meteorological stations. From those parameters the software’s graphical user interface presents climate statistics at user-selected latitude-longitude coordinates, calculated over arbitrarily defined periods within summer or winter growing seasons. The statistics reported include crop evapotranspiration estimates derived from the FAO-56 single crop coefficient algorithm, probabilities of exceedance of both cumulative rainfall and growing degree days, the probability that minimum and maximum daily temperatures will exceed user-defined temperature thresholds, and the probability of heat stress, cold stress and dry periods of varying duration.