Weather and the Yield of a Crop

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Abstract
SUMMARY The growth of plants is controlled by the availability of photosynthesized carbohydrates. Since both rainfall and sunshine are needed for photosynthesis an empirical expression is proposed which relates vegetative growth to the product of rainfall and bright sunshine hours over a specified period. Tea is a crop in which the yield is entirely vegetative and harvested throughout the year. Laycock's data for tea yields from constant treatment plots in Malawi show that yield was strongly correlated with the product of rainfall per month (R) and average daily hours of sunshine per month (S) for the previous month (r=0·972). The graph of yield vs RS for the previous month gives a straight line passing through the origin. This empirical weather parameter RS appears suitable for the study of vegetative harvests.

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