Main authors: Abdallah Alaoui
Editor: Jane Brandt
Source documents: Alaoui, A. (2018) Visual Soil Quality Assessment Manual v2: assessment of soil and plant quality for the season 2018.  iSQAPER Report  49 pp

 

Importance

In agriculture, crop yield (also known as "agricultural output") refers to both the measure of the yield of a crop per unit area of land cultivation, and the seed generation of the plant itself (e.g. if three grains are harvested for each grain seeded, the resulting yield is 1:3). A 1:3 yield is considered by agronomists as the minimum required to sustain human life. One of the three seeds must be set aside for the next planting season, the remaining two either consumed by the grower, or one for human consumption and the other for livestock feed. The higher the surplus, the more livestock can be established and maintained, thereby increasing the physical and economic well-being of the farmer and his family.

Assessment

The unit by which the yield of a crop is measured is kilograms per hectare. This information should be provided by the farmer. Two questions should be addressed for this assessment.

  1. Ask the farmer for the most important crop type(s) composing the crop rotation that should be considered in terms of income, or/and environmental impacts. There might be only one or two crops.
  2. Comparison of the yields of each crop type between the situations before and after AMP implementation. This comparison may be qualitative since crop yield is affected by different conditions (e.g., weather).

We recommend completing the Table below.

Table. Estimation of crop yield, information provided by the farmer

Crop type   Crop yield (kg/ha)  Comparison with situation before AMP implementation Explanation  
Currently Increase Stable Decrease
Crop 1          
Crop 2          
Crop 3          
etc          

Crop yield can be estimated for all crops composing the crop rotation if possible, otherwise consider only the crop that is most impacted by the AMP implementation.

 

 

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