Vegetable Variety Navigator: An Interactive Grower Decision-Support Tool

Ali Loker Author

04/02/2021 Added

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Vegetable Variety Navigator: An Interactive Grower Decision-Support Tool. https://agronomy.unl.edu/Vegetable-Variety-Navigator

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[00:00:01.410]Hello. My name is Ali Loker and I'm a Doctor of Plant Health student at the
[00:00:05.280]University of Nebraska.
[00:00:07.080]I'm excited to share some research I did in the summer of 2020 under the
[00:00:11.010]direction of Dr.
[00:00:11.820]Sam Wortman in the Agronomy and Horticulture Department. Together,
[00:00:15.630]we developed a tool called the Vegetable Variety Navigator,
[00:00:19.350]which is an interactive grower decision support tool.
[00:00:25.130]To begin,
[00:00:25.820]I would like you to take a moment and imagine that you're a vegetable grower in
[00:00:30.200]the middle of winter.
[00:00:32.630]You're planning what crops and what varieties you'd like to plant for the next
[00:00:36.440]season. And you're very excited when your seed catalogs finally arrive.
[00:00:41.180]But when you open them up, you see a vast number of choices.
[00:00:45.560]These are the number of varieties by different crops and suppliers for just a
[00:00:49.340]select few. Up to 24 different varieties of broccoli to choose from,
[00:00:53.930]74 of cucumber, 41 of pepper.
[00:00:57.170]So how do you go about making this decision?
[00:01:00.200]One opportunity is to consult variety trial information.
[00:01:03.920]These are typically conducted by university extension in a specific area,
[00:01:09.530]and they can provide really wonderful location-specific information about what
[00:01:13.970]cultivars might perform best in an area.
[00:01:18.200]Additionally,
[00:01:18.980]they're replicated experiments and have statistical analysis,
[00:01:22.730]so that adds another layer of rigor to the results.
[00:01:27.350]There are some limitations that come with variety trials.
[00:01:31.430]One of the major limitations for a grower is that these results are scattered
[00:01:36.230]across different websites, different databases,
[00:01:40.630]and they're just sometimes hard to track down.
[00:01:44.270]There's also limited interpretation ability outside of that particular study
[00:01:48.890]location. And lastly,
[00:01:51.950]there are relatively few variety trials for specialty crops,
[00:01:56.150]especially when we compare them to row crops, like corn or wheat or soy.
[00:02:03.380]So enter the Vegetable Variety Navigator.
[00:02:07.250]Our objectives for this project were to aggregate and
[00:02:11.690]synthesize global variety trial data for broccoli, peppers,
[00:02:15.560]and cucumbers.
[00:02:18.410]We also explore descriptive and explanatory trends,
[00:02:21.740]potential factors that would impact yield. Lastly,
[00:02:26.090]and most excitingly to me,
[00:02:27.620]we synthesized and present our results in an online decision support tool.
[00:02:32.300]This is available to anyone at the link you see on your screen.
[00:02:36.950]So.
[00:02:37.160]For our methods,
[00:02:38.300]we conducted a systematic literature review to hunt down all of those variety
[00:02:42.750]trials. We extracted data for analysis,
[00:02:48.170]and then we developed our own
[00:02:49.910]tool. So for the systematic literature review,
[00:02:54.380]we searched a variety of different avenues,
[00:02:57.080]including the academic search engine route,
[00:03:00.190]as well as a more general internet search and specific databases.
[00:03:04.300]So we wanted to conduct a broad enough search to be sure we were capturing all
[00:03:08.350]of the available data. And we specifically focused on these three crops.
[00:03:13.810]Our next step was data extraction.
[00:03:16.960]We extracted yield and our quality data where it was available and coded it by a
[00:03:21.430]variety of factors.
[00:03:23.470]We then grouped that data by crop and variety for our meta-analysis.
[00:03:30.190]In total, we analyzed nearly a hundred broccoli,
[00:03:33.910]cucumber and a little bit over a hundred bell pepper varieties.
[00:03:38.560]We calculated response ratios for yield or quality. So to do that,
[00:03:42.820]we took the yield or quality of variety A, for example,
[00:03:46.900]and then divided it by the average yield for all the other varieties included in
[00:03:50.530]that study.
[00:03:53.440]This allowed us to then calculate confidence intervals for each of the
[00:03:57.820]varieties. Finally,
[00:03:59.080]we conducted a meta-regression analysis to see if there was any correlation
[00:04:02.980]between yield and aridity. And lastly,
[00:04:07.360]we integrated these mean relative yield and quality values,
[00:04:10.630]along with their confidence intervals into our online tool where they're
[00:04:14.920]summarized in graph forms.
[00:04:18.490]We also have our data presented in a map form to further investigate the
[00:04:22.990]geographic distribution of studies.
[00:04:25.480]And it also allows us to present data from specific studies that didn't have
[00:04:29.800]enough data to be included in our meta-analysis.
[00:04:33.640]Now I'd like to show you a brief tour of the tool itself. On the
[00:04:38.320]screen,
[00:04:38.770]we'll see a graphical summary of the mean relative yield and the
[00:04:43.450]upper and lower expected relative yield for all of these different varieties
[00:04:48.430]of cucumbers.
[00:04:50.230]We can see that when we hover over one of these data
[00:04:54.850]points, a pop-up box will appear.
[00:04:57.820]This provides additional information such as the number of site years that
[00:05:01.870]contribute to these values, the number of studies,
[00:05:05.260]and also summarizes the relative yield potential,
[00:05:09.880]which we categorize as low, moderate or high. Finally,
[00:05:14.530]we can see that the study locations are highlighted in that small map on the
[00:05:19.210]pop-up box so that the user can get an idea of where these studies were
[00:05:22.960]conducted.
[00:05:26.940]Our map view allows the user to view a geographic distribution of the studies.
[00:05:33.000]I have this filtered by only broccoli varieties here on the right.
[00:05:36.810]I could do a further search, if I had a specific variety in mind.
[00:05:41.430]I can filter by my soil texture or aridity index value to further
[00:05:46.110]target the results.
[00:05:49.440]We have similar functionality here in terms of hovering over a data point
[00:05:54.270]to view additional information about that study.
[00:05:58.580]To
[00:05:58.760]conclude,
[00:05:59.270]I'd like to discuss a few future opportunities that we see for this research.
[00:06:05.120]We are
[00:06:05.390]currently beta testing the tool to get some feedback from Nebraska growers and
[00:06:09.830]extension agents.
[00:06:12.470]We plan
[00:06:13.190]to conduct broccoli,
[00:06:14.600]cucumber and sweet pepper trials in the summer of 2021 and 22.
[00:06:19.670]And we'll use the data from those trials to sort of crosscheck or ground truth
[00:06:24.620]those data with what's currently in the tool.
[00:06:29.660]On our website, we also have the opportunity for researchers, growers,
[00:06:34.160]and other folks to submit data for consideration.
[00:06:39.050]And
[00:06:39.200]we also plan to expand this tool to additional crops like sweet corn or
[00:06:43.790]lettuce
[00:06:44.380]in the future.
[00:06:47.380]I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank these folks
[00:06:50.860]on your screen. Um, both in the Wortman lab and at UNL Extension, uh, Dr.
[00:06:55.630]Sam Wortman, his grad student Chris Chen and extension agents, Katie King,
[00:07:00.580]and John Porter.
[00:07:03.670]Thank you.
[00:07:03.880]Thanks so much for your time and attention. And I would welcome any questions,
[00:07:07.750]feedback, or ideas; my email is on the screen.

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Vegetable Variety Navigator: An Interactive Grower Decision-Support Tool

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