A digital interactive decision dashboard for crop yield trials

Abstract

Globally, farmers face many challenges when taking rapid decisions related to crop management. Therefore, to serve as a decision-support tool, the outputs from research trials should be communicated near real-time (immediately after harvest) to avoid the lag time between data collection and publication in printed or electronic formats. Historically, crop yield trials provided invaluable information to farmers to help them decide the best crop genotypes based on their specific geographic locations. The aim of this application note is to highlight the development of a digital interactive decision dashboard for sharing crop yield trial data, in addition to functioning as a data repository. The current testing dataset involves yield trials for multiple crops in Kansas (within the United States, US) and winter canola across multiple US states. The development of the user interface involved Python programming with the Dash framework, while data manipulations were executed via the Pandas library. The tool empowers users to rapidly assess genotype yield trends year-to-year, incorporating location data for informed decision-making. The user-friendly interface facilitates data input, enabling non-programmers to analyze personal data effortlessly. The database is open to be expanded to include more trials around the globe, developing a comprehensive and more relevant yield data repository.