A crop rotation model for Marinduque, Philippines

Crop production faces an increasing threat due to anthropogenic activities and natural hazards. Crop rotation is a tool that can address these issues in crop production. This study proposes an optimization model that generates a crop rotation plan using spatiotemporal suitability scores given a set of crops, with an objective to maximize the total suitability of the assignment of crops while satisfying principles of crop rotation such as suitability threshold and crop succession requirements. Biophysical and climatic characteristic data from Marinduque, Philippines, with upland rice, corn, and mungbean as crops, were used to validate the model. The results show that with a minimum suitability threshold of 0.6, an optimal crop rotation plan for one annual cycle included corn and mungbean for one (May to October) and two (June to August, September to November) cropping periods, respectively. Throughout each cropping period, the corn and mungbean will cover 46.64% and 10.33% of the arable land, respectively. Based on the crop rotation plan, corn can be cultivated along the shorelines except in the southeast area of the island, where mungbean is more suitable. The results suggest that other crops should be considered since the current set of crops leaves 43% of the arable land unutilized. This model can be used for any combination of crops and other spatiotemporal suitability factors, allowing it to be applied to different sites and scenarios.