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6. CONCLUSIONS
The methodology presented found to be encouraging that provides an opportunity to plant physiologist, a modeler and
GIS user a common ground to discuss simulation results and further potential research directions. Simulated crop yield
and other maps generated under different scale dependencies within India and Bihar can be used to better communicate
model predictions. Hence, using this methodology a region/nation can be modeled for any crop productivity, which help
researchers and decision-makers understand the status and extent of climate, soils and crop cum field management
effects on global processes such as rice, wheat and maize production.
To evaluate "Spatial-EPIC" yield simulation validation were carried out in different pockets of India based on the major
growing reasons. Two tier validations were done at two different cell resolutions, coarse and fine for whole India (0.5
degree cell size) as well as one of the Indian states Bihar (0.1 degree cell size) respectively. Validation results was
found quite successful for wheat and maize productivity whereas in case of rice it was a bit under estimated in southern
most part of India whereas the other places gave better correlation between the simulated and observed values. It is
believed that the model can be used in simulating any piece of land since India is one of the best example of showing
the diversity from one place to other in terms of climate, natural, economical as well as social conditions from model
applicability viewpoint.
Hence, the “Spatial-EPIC” possesses immense potential as a farm management tool. However, further research should
be focussed on improving the model prediction, and the field level interactions within the system. Also, availability of
new agricultural land-use maps with seasonal crop delineation, and other information of the management practices will
help in bettering the model results.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authors take this opportunity to express his sincere thanks and gratitude to Prof. Shunji Murai, Institute of Industrial
Science, University of Tokyo, for his constant advice and encouragement all through during my three-year doctoral
study stay in his laboratory. Also, author is very much indebted to Prof Ryosuke Shibaskai, Center for Spatial
information science, University of Tokyo for his technical advice and guidance throughout to accomplish this research.
Thanks goes to Global Frontier Project (in Japanese, Mirai-Kaitaku) sponsored by Japan Society of Promotional
Science for providing generous financial support in order to accomplish this study without financial strain.
REFERENCES
Satya Priya Shibasaki, Ryosuke and Shiro Ochi (1998) Modeling Spatial Crop Production: A GIS approach, Proceedings of
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