Windbreak benefit to potato yield in tropical north Australia

Abstract

A study was conducted on the Atherton Tablelands of tropical north Australia to quantify the benefit of a 18-month-old windbreak to the production of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). In the leeward side, wind velocity and potato yield were measured at various distances from the windbreak. Wind direction on the study site was also monitored. Non-linear modeling was used to describe the relationship between potato yield and distance from the windbreak. The definite integral was applied to the developed model to calculate the net increase percentage of potato yield. Wind velocity was greatly reduced by the windbreak, and potato yield was increased by 6%. It appears that fitting non-linear models is a useful method to determine an accurate net increase of crops from windbreaks.