Author(s):

K Manikandan and P Irene Vethamoni

Abstract:
Vegetables are an important supplement to the human diet as they provide the essential minerals, vitamins and fibre required for maintaining health. Large number of land throughout the world cannot be used for food production because of the limitations imposed by natural or man made environmental stresses. This creates a major problem for agriculture. Production must be increased to meet rapidly growing demands with improved production techniques. New agricultural research is needed to supply information to farmers, policy makers and other decision makers on how to accomplish sustainable agriculture over the wide variations in climate around the world. In this direction the use of crop models in research is being encouraged. Modeling techniques applied to agriculture can be useful to define research priorities and understanding the basic interactions of the soil-plant-atmosphere system. As a research tool, model development and application can contribute to identify gaps in our knowledge, thus enabling more efficient and targeted research planning. Using a model to estimate the importance and the effect of certain parameters, a researcher can notice which factors can be most useful. An intensely calibrated and evaluated model can be used to effectively conduct research that would in the end save time and money and significantly contribute to developing sustainable agriculture that meets the world’s needs for food.

Pages: 1006-1009  |  2741 Views  1446 Downloads

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