Crop Trials with R

The book provides a comprehensive guide on the application of statistical methods in agricultural research, with a focus on using R software for data analysis. It addresses the need for practical, understandable statistical analysis in agriculture, where its core objective is to equip readers with the skill manage and analyse data within the software for various experimental designs, perform basic statistical analysis, interpreting results from diverse types of crop trials - be it simple, factorial, or pooled experimental design and effectively presenting agricultural data. The book is structured into several chapters, each addressing a different aspect of statistical applications in agriculture. It begins with an introduction to fundamental statistical terminology and concepts, highlighting the relevance of statistics in various fields and the rationale behind selecting R for data analysis. The book then guides readers through the installation of R and RStudio, providing practical advice on data import and workspace setup. It explores into basic statistics, focusing on key data metrics & graph and demonstrates the ease of executing these tasks in R. The chapters progress to cover experimental design, offering insights into principles and the use of R for treatment randomization in diverse experiments. The book also addresses correlation analysis, path analysis in plant breeding research and data transformation techniques, each with hands-on R examples. Advanced topics include a thorough examination of Completely Randomized Design (CRD), Randomized Block Design (RBD) and Latin Square Design (LSD), discussing their theoretical foundations, structure and analysis, including ANOVA interpretations in R. Additionally, it explores Split and Strip Plot Designs and their applications, concluding with a chapter on visualizing output, particularly focusing on multiple comparison tests and their representation in R. This book is structured to provide a sequential understanding of both the theoretical and practical aspects of statistical application in agriculture, making it an indispensable guide for researchers and practitioners in the field.