Experiments are conducted to obtain information on the population of interest and this information can be used to draw inferences about parameters of interest, to make decisions about hypotheses and to plan future research. In general, experiments which have been improperly designed usually result in information that is irrelevant to the researcher. In agriculture the main objective of experimental design is to estimate the average response of a variety or an agronomic treatment, or the average differences between varieties (or treatments) as precisely as possible even when this response varies from environment to environment or from year to year. Any experimental program that has the objective to assess the value of a variety or an agronomic practice should be designed in such a way that provides an accurate and unbiased estimate of the average response of these varieties in each environment (site-year combination) and in a combination of circumstances in which that variety will be grown. In this chapter we provide a short definition of terms used in most agricultural experiments and some brief explanations and description of some common experimental designs used in agriculture.

Genetic Resources Program

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CCJL01

CIMMYT Staff Publications Collection