Formulation of sugar beet yield potential prediction and management- or natural - damage evaluation standards at different crop growth stages

The damages of natural disasters to crops forces countries to take a strategy for compensating these damages and to use 'crop insurance'. In Iran, Unexpected Disasters Fund _ in Village Development Bank _ used to compensate the farmers for the natural damages depending on the type and timing of the damages. Given that this Fund covers various types of damages, farmers' share has not been practically satisfactory. The founding of Crops Insurance Fund in 1984 was a great step forward for supporting the farmers. Since sugar beet is a fully-systematized, strategic crop in Iran and the precise data of its cultivation area is available, it is regarded as one of the first crops which have been covered by insurance. Sugar beet insurance firstly used to cover the operations from planting until pre-harvesting (Option I) and afterwards, the insurance of sugar beet harvest was announced as optional coverage area, too (Option II). The current project was conducted to study and propose a technical and scientific approach for specifying the potential of production and the natural damages to sugar beet product in the form of tables and practical, simple equations. Therefore, an approach was suggested for specifying the production potential of sugar beet during a growing season, and the damages and their effects on final yield was determined according to the results of the main and complementary projects. At the end of the project, a map was prepared of the main sugar beet-producing regions given their climatic attributes and the main affecting factors were determined in each region. Moreover, the main damaging factors were identified including managerial and natural factors and their roles were separately investigated. Then, the statistical functions for estimating their effects were obtained and software, a reference book, a guideline and a questionnaire were provided for each damaging factor.