El Niño-Southern Oscillation effects on peanut yield and nitrogen leaching

Abstract

Peanut growers in north Florida asked for help in managing the crop to increase yield and reduce yield variability, using information on the pattern of large-scale climate. The objectives of this study were to explore at 4 locations in the peanut belt of Florida and southern Georgia the potential for improving peanut crop performance by altering crop management according to the phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The CROPGRO-Peanut model was used to simulate peanut yield responses to climate and management. The effects of planting date and irrigation management options on the mean and variability of simulated crop yield and nitrogen leaching in different ENSO phases were estimated. This case study showed potential for enhancing peanut yields (1 to 8%) and reducing yield variability (2 to 12%) by tailoring planting dates to expected ENSO conditions, while at the same time reducing potential environmental damages from nitrogen leaching by 1 to 11%. Locations which appeared to have no ENSO linkages currently showed most responses to tailored management in this simulation study. Tailored management calls for later planting during an El Niño, and earlier planting in a La Niña. When planting dates were tailored to ENSO phases, simulations showed at least 10% lower nitrogen leaching from rainfed production systems in about 70% of the years. Among ENSO phases, La Niña seasons were shown to have greater nitrogen leaching, with little response to management changes relative to El Niño seasons. Tailored management may be most advantageous in El Niño seasons as a result of higher yields and lower nitrogen leaching. Further research is needed before options derived from simulations and optimization can be recommended and adopted with confidence by growers and extension advisors. KEY WORDS: ENSO · Management decisions · Peanut irrigation · Planting date · Nitrogen leachingResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher Clim Res 22: 129-140, 2002 Green et al. (1997) have shown that El Niño has little discernable influence on total summer precipitation in Florida. In the summer, climate impacts of El Niño events are more localized. With some exceptions, La Niña events show the reverse of the climate anomalies associated with El Niño events. Knowledge of ENSO events relative to crop growing season is important for understanding analyses of ENSO's influence on agriculture. Although the timing of ENSO events may vary among years, summer field crops (March-October) are most influenced by the preceding ENSO phase . For southern Georgia, Hansen et al. (2001) attributed maize yield response to ENSO primarily to enhanced June precipitation in La Niña years, coinciding with tasseling, when maize is most susceptible to water stress. This paper investigates possible management options for peanut Arachis hypogaea L. production in the Southeast, assuming prior knowledge of El Niño phases. In a series of state-wide meetings with peanut farmers and extension agents, Jagtap et al. (2...

Optimal Crop Insurance Under Climate Variability: Contrasting Insurer and Farmer Interests

“…It is important to indicate that the simulated yields are consistent with previous research in Florida (e.g., Cabrera et al, 2007;Mavromatis et al, 2002;Hansen et al, 1998) and with historical data (NASS, 2007). In both datasets, synthetic and historical, it is possible to observe differences in sample means for the alternative ENSO phases.…”

“…Several authors, including Baigorria et al (2008), Hansen (2002), Mavromatis et al (2002), and Jones et al (2000), have reported the effect of climate variability due to ENSO on crop yields in Florida. The ENSO is a climatic phenomenon characterized by changes in the sea surface temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that influences the regional climate.…”

Variability in climatology and agricultural production in China in association with the East Asian summer monsoon and El Niño Southern Oscillation

“…The dependence of agricultural production variability on ENSO and its application to the forecasting of food production have been investigated in Africa, America, Europe, and South Asia (e.g. Cane et al 1994, Jones et al 2000, Orlove et al 2000, Ferreyra et al 2001, Gimeno et al 2002, Mavromatis et al 2002, Phillips et al 2002, Meza & Wilks 2003, Selvaraju 2003, but few such studies are available on EAM and ENSO in SE Asia or China. Our aims in this study were, to analyze for the major agricultural regions of China, (1) seasonal climate variability associated with EAM and ENSO and (2) the dependence of agricultural production on seasonal climate variability.…”

Estimating solar radiation for crop modeling using temperature data from urban and rural stations

“…The increasing interest in using crop models as research tools for annual yield estimation , for tailoring crop management practices to expected weather (Mavromatis et al 2002), or for yield forecasting , has led to an urgent requirement of daily weather data (i.e. global solar radiation (GSR), maximum (T max ) and minimum (T min ) air temperatures, and rainfall).…”