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Welcome to the Crop Monitoring Box documentation
1. Introduction
1.1. General introduction to crop forecasting and its methods.
1.2. Crop forecasting philosophy of FAO, an overview.
1.3. The principles of crop modelling and their implementation in the CMBox.
1.4. Crop forecasting with water budget calculations.
1.5. Introduction to CMBox software, data formats and GIS.
2. Setting up a crop monitoring network
2.1. The two basic modelling options: grid-based and station-based
2.2. Setting up a monitoring network.
2.3. Selection of a reference period.
3. Gathering and calculating weather data
3.1. Entering and importing normal and actual weather data.
3.2. Computing the ET0.
3.3. Preparation of a ten-daily rainfall and ET0 database for crop forecasting
4. Gathering and calculating crop data
4.1. Analysis of time series of climate and crops to identify trends. Construction of detrended crop yield time series.
4.2. Preparation of polygons for main crop growing areas in the country and define cropping practices and conditions.
5. Techniques to use when data are unavailable
5.1. Introduction to Geostatistics and the spatial interpolation of weather and crop data.
5.2. How to fill gaps in data records
6. The FAO water balance model and its crop forecasting indicators
6.1. Understanding the FAO Water Balance Model. Crops that can be monitored, including irrigated crops.
6.2. Gathering all into the FAO AgroMetShell (AMS) crop simulation software.
6.3. Run Water Balance model for both historical and current seasons. Understanding the output of the model.
7. From water balance indicators to yield estimates
7.1. Practical introduction to multiple regression techniques and the selection of variables through a principal components analysis
7.2. Calibrate crop yields against water balance outputs and other variables.
7.3. Computing crop yield maps create forecasts.
8. Independent indicators derived from satellite imagery
8.1. Introduction to Remote Sensing (CCD and NDVI) and its role in crop forecasting.
8.2. Development of a standard procedure to define actual phenology (in particular crop planting date), based on local practice and satellite imagery
8.3. The use of Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) images.
9. Data and information dissemination
9.1. Using other monitoring products in crop forecasting
9.2. Prepare write-up of the products above as inputs to national crop monitoring bulletins
10. Setting up a crop monitoring system
10.1. Introduction
10.2. Resources required
10.3. Where to get assistance