Defining critical weather events in the phenology of lentil for winter sowing in the west Asian highlands

Abstract

As a result of the imminent introduction of irrigated industrial cropping systems to SE Anatolia, the current heartland of red lentil production, the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture is considering ways of sustaining Turkey's globally substantial production level and major export share of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.). One option is to introduce a potentially more productive technology involving winter sowing in the Anatolian highlands where previously only low yields have been obtained using traditional spring-sown varieties. Definitions of specific meteorological events and their associated probabilities of occurrence have been formulated in relation to the key events in the phenological development of diverse genotypes of winter- and spring-sown lentil. These various definitions are intended to be used in simple models which predict flowering time in lentil, given genetic and meteorological information. Meteorological data from three locations are selected to represent the range of continental Mediterranean environments experienced in the crop production zones of central and eastern Anatolia; the locations are examined for their potential use as test beds for a phenological modelling exercise.