An Investigation into the Effect Of Stochastic Annual Rainfall on Crop Yields in South Western Australia

In this research, the methodology of action research dynamics and a case study using both qualitative and quantitative methods was employed for the analysis of geographic data in an agricultural context. The geographic data was made up of land use profiles that were juxtaposed with previously captured rainfall data from fixed weather stations in Australia which was interpolated using ordinary krigeing to fit a grid surface. The resultant stochastic annual rainfall profiles for a selected study area within the South West Agricultural region of Western Australia were used to identify areas of high crop production. The areas within the study area were spatially scaled to individual shires. The rainfall was sampled for the years 2002, 2003, 2005 as a mix of low and high rainfall and high production attributes. The patterns suggested that crop production was closely linked to the annual rainfall for some shires, with location being of significance at other shires.