Adaptation of the European crop growth monitoring system to the Belgian conditions.

The aim of the Belgian Crop Growth Monitoring System (B-CGMS) is the elaboration of an integrated information system predicting reliable, timely and objective estimates of crop yields and monitoring calamity sites at regional scales. Seven major crops are concerned by the project : winter wheat, winter barley, fodder maize, winter rape seed, potatoes, sugar beet and permanent meadow. The main tasks in the adaptation of the European model come down to the completion and the improvement of the databases to specify the local conditions and particularities of Belgium, to modify the scale of the forecasting system, to incorporate satellite information and to develop a web-based mapping interface.