Tomás García Azcárate
Agricultural economist specialising in the Common Agricultural Policy and agricultural markets, associate researcher at CEIGRAM, member of the Advisory Council on European Affairs of the Community of Madrid and of the Committee of Experts of Foro Agrario
This is an interesting article, as there is far less evidence relating to woody crops than to annual crops. The conclusions are based on field data and a sound methodological and statistical analysis.
There are two main conclusions from the study. The first is not particularly surprising; it confirms that using point data yields better results than when average data are taken into account. The second, however, highlights the growing importance of climatic events compared with other factors that also influence yields, such as the use of fertilisers or the age of the trees.
There are no major limitations, but clearly, before drawing conclusions that can be generalised to woody crops, we need further studies on other crops.