The objective of this work was to present the Analysis of Correspondence as a multivariate statistical method that can help with yield mapping interpretation. There is a concern about its indiscriminated use as a tool of predictive information, without taking into account the spatial and temporal variability of the yield. The hypothesis that the use of yield mapping is strictly related to the variability of the components was studied. Four yield maps were used corresponding to collected yield samples for rice in 1994, corn in 1995, cotton in 1996 and corn in 1998, in a grid of 110 points, 10 x 10 m spaced, at the experimental station of the Instituto Agronômico, at Votuporanga (SP), Brazil. The original yield data were categorised and analyzed using Simple and Multiple Correspondence Analysis. A great dissimilarity between the cultures or classes of cultures was found as measured by the Euclidean Distance in the plan.
spatial and temporal variability; precision agriculture; exploratory analysis; categorical data