Request for thesis subject

[ezi]

Sir/Mam .
Im a college student from the Philippines and we have a thesis for the requirements of my bachelor degree in Agriculture..
And i am interested in Agrometereology research..
Im requesting to all INSAM members if you have any suggested research/thesis topic all about Agrometreology..
Thank you..

[rene]

Hello Ezi,

nice that you ask the question on the INSAM forum.

Agrometeorology is a very "big" subject, to the extent that not everyone agrees about the definition. WMO, for instance, would include pests and diseases (e.g. desert locusts) as well as irrigation, which FAO would not include. Before you question can be answered in a meaningful way, it is important that you provide some information about your personal preferences as well as constraints. For instance, are you interested more in field work or in theoretical desk work? Do you have a preference for crops, or cattle, or maybe beekeeping? What data do you have access to? Yield time series, phenology, soil moisture... Are you interested in crop insurance or advice to farmers?

Please try to be a bit more specific about your request, and I'll be pleased to help!

Looking forwards to reading your views.

Regards

R.

[ezi]

Thank you Sir for your concern. I am on my 3rd year of bachelor degree in Agriculture. I have National Certificate II in Horticulture. Im interested in the Yield time series, phenology, soil moisture of tropical crops. i hope you can help me.
Have a blessed Day!

[rene]

Hello Ezi,

thanks for giving some extra info, but there are so many possible options that we'll need to discuss a bit more to find something that is feasible with available data, and something which you are interested in too, of course. How much time would you have available? To me, horticulture is fruits, flowers, vegetables, also mushrooms and probably a couple of other things. Correct? You need a subject involving one of those crops?

You mention time series. Do you access to yield time series? (How does one express the yield of flowers?). A very typical problem is to determine the agrometeorological factors that influence yield. This also assumes that you have access to data about the agrometeorological factors. Is this the case? Your school (college) certainly has a weather station from which you could use the data. Does this station carry out soil moisture measurements? Is there sunshine data? You have to find out what data are available.

If you cannot find field data (i.e. data from a real experimental of village/farmers' field), you could also try to do something with agricultural statistics. Different countries do have different statistical traditions. Most will have a category "fruits" and "vegetables" but this is insufficient to do meaningful analyses. Do you consider that sweet potatoes are a horticultural crop? What about coconuts? Bananas?

I found provincial statistics here

http://countrystat.psa.gov.ph/?cont=10& ... a=A60PNVOP
http://countrystat.psa.gov.ph/?cont=10& ... a=B00PNNBT
http://countrystat.psa.gov.ph/?cont=10& ... a=P00LUAHO

which give you very nice time series. Have a look at the data and see if there are provinces and regions you like for some reason. Otherwise, you could select the Visayas which have had lots of problems with cyclones. Here's a subject that would be interesting, I think: see how the timing of cyclones and crop phenology affects losses due to cyclones. Of course, you will have to do some exploratory work to select an interesting crop & region and to find the data.

I have data from Munoz, Cabanuatan & Nueva Ecija on my computer from 1988 to 2010, because I did some work on palay forecasting in 2010... I can give them to you if they are useful, but you will have to find more recent data.

If you think that looking at the impact of cyclones on some crops, you could also use some rainfall data derived from satellites, which I can point you to.

Ezi: pls do realise that I cannot decide a subject for you, but I can suggest one or more, depending on what you are interested in and on data availability.

Let's stop this for now. Give me your reaction and then we can continue discussing if you want.