Articles
A MULTICRITERIA DECISION AID TO DETERMINE THE GENETIC PERFORMANCE OF STRAWBERRY THROUGH A VARIETAL OBSERVATORY NETWORK IN WESTERN EUROPE
A common protocol was defined to assess the cultivars compared to 2 standards, i.e. ‘Chandler’ southern and ‘Elsanta’ northern.
Physiological adaptation, production components, pest and disease susceptibility, qualitative fruit value (appearance, flavour), and shelf-life ability, were the criteria used to score performance, using a qualitative scale, at 2 or 3 stages during the vegetative and reproductive phases of development.
Classical methods of parametric and non parametric statistics were used to analyse quantitative data from the crop.
An original multi-criteria analysis method was also used to integrate all quantitative and qualitative data.
First, the profile of each cultivar is described with a star diagram using 6 axis of character judgement ; Second, the use of an outranking method named ELECTRE IV enables preference relations to be constructed between pairs of cultivars according to a concept of concordance and discordance.
Finally, a partial preorder is established ordering the cultivars.
For each trial location, the genetic performance of cultivars is described with character judgement axis and aggregated to seek to identify a hierarchical relationship.
The different relations are compared to find the effects of the different trial locations on cultivar performance.