An Alternative Approach for Analysis of Data from a Long-Term Experiment

Abstract

Long term experiments are commonly analysed at the end of the experiment
using all the data collected over the entire duration of the experiment. Various
methods are adopted to analyse such data but, in general, little consideration is given
to the effect of climatic factors during this period. Consequently, information
gathered from such an analysis is often incomplete.
An alternative approach for data analysis is proposed where the successive years
of the experiment are classified jnto two states, namely, "Good year" and "Bad year"
depending on the weather conditions. As a result, four different possible situations
namely, "good year followed by a bad year", "good year followed by a good year",
"bad year followed by a good year" and "bad year followed by a bad year" are
considered. The method is illustrated using a data set from a trial carried out at the
Coconut Research Institute and has demonstrated the feasibility of obtaining precise
information on the treatment effect.