Crop Yield Predictor for Small Farms in Monroe County, NY

There has been an economic shift recently towards larger farms, although small farms make up 91% of farms in the United States and are “more productive per unit of land than large farms” (Reynolds). One way we could help small farms compete and cope with climate change is through predictive analytics applications. However, these apps are catered more towards larger farms regarding prices and ease of use. If these tools were to focus more on the needs of small farms, they could help them make informed decisions based on predicted future yields. This is the goal of Yield Predictor, an application I developed that predicts the total yields for a specific crop users enter into the app. They will be able to see a scatter plot of predicted yields for the next 10 years based on two climate scenarios: RCP 4.5 (intermediate climate scenario) and RCP 8.5 (worst-case climate scenario).