CROP-NET: Monitoring and predicting the effects of climate change on crop yields

Climate change poses one of the greatest risks to future food production both in the UK and globally. The general consensus is that climate change will have both significant positive and negative impacts on UK agriculture, and these will vary depending on geographic region. Climate-related impacts may occur through gradual, long-term change, or as a result of more rapid and stochastic changes triggered by extreme weather events, such as droughts and wet winters. There remains much uncertainty though associated with such predictions. The CROP-NET project aims to scope out the requirements for a robust, real-time crop and grass yield monitoring and modelling service for the UK to provide improved predictions of future climate change impacts. Specifically, we will explore a data-driven approach exploiting such information sources as earth observation data, precision yield data, and fine-scale climate projections under UKCP18.