Mathematical Models in Crop Bioclimatology in the Former USSR (History, Achievements and Prospects)

Agriculture and related scientific disciplines are undergoing a rapid evolution. Mathematics, rather than being just a useful tool for describing research results and correlating them with theoretical concepts,, has found growing support as the only possible approach to some problems. In terms of science methodology the current situation may be defined as the commencement of the maturity stage with the “normal” ways of conducting scientific research being dominant. Three development stages may be discerned in the ways In which we describe and explain relationships between the physical environment and crop production. In the first stage descriptive approaches prevailed, with relationships between weather (climatic) conditions and crop production being explained on the basis of agronomy and plant physiology concepts and qualitative laws of physics. This descriptive approach was replaced with an empirical statistical one which emphasized mostly the search for direct relations between input and output of a black box – the Crop–weather system. A specific date can be pinpointed when the former USSR initiated development of the third, current, stage in resolving crop-environment problems. In 1964 three papers were published by two groups of authors: Budyko and Gandin (Budyko 1956; Budyko and Gandin 1964) on the one hand, and Budagovsky, Nichiporovich and Ross (Budagovsky et al. 1964) on the other. These papers laid the groundwork for a quantitative theory of crop production, resulting in the change from a static to a dynamic presentation of crop–environment relationships.