RANDOM PARAMETER MODELS OF FERTILIZER RESPONSE FOR CORN USING SKEWED DISTRIBUTIONS

Abstract

Random parameter models have been found to better determine the optimum dose of fertilizer than fixed parameter. However, a major restriction of it is the normality assumption.. The purpose of this study the introduction of random parameter models of fertilizer response using skewed distributions from a Bayesian perspective. The method is applied to data sets of multilocation trials of potassium fertilization on corn. We compare the Linear Plateau, Spillman-Mitscherlich, and Quadratic random parameter models with different random errors distribution assumption, i.e. as normal, skew-normal, Student-t and Skew-t distribution using the Deviance Information Criterion (DIC). The results show that the smallest DIC value is obtained for the normal linear plateau model compare with the other models. The correlation between observed and fitted values was significant.
Key words : fertilizer response model, mixed effects, skewed distributions, DIC.