Aspects regarding the use of statistical methods for quantifying the influence of climatic factors on crop productivity
Abstract
Our study attempts to assess the usefulness of statistical methods, namely correlation matrices and multiple regression, for explaining
the annual fluctuations of crop productivity. We analysed the evolution of productivity for5 crops (winter wheat, maize, sun-flower, potato and sugar beet), using the mean values for Iaşi and Botoşani counties, within the period 1990-2007. Using different agroclimatic predictors, according to the specific crop requirements, we found that winter wheat and
maize productivity is better related to the annual fluctuations of climatic conditions. The most important factors explaining the productivity evolution are the mean temperatures for the second development stage, in the case of winter wheat, and the precipitations accumulated during the vegetation period for maize.