2. Data analysis and statistical learning

The first section of this article presented the concepts of plant or crop growth modeling and how the mathematical models obtained opened the way to concrete applications in agriculture or plant breeding, notably through forecasting or optimization. Mechanistic modeling is based on the description of the plant's functional ("mechanistic") processes. A new, data-driven approach based on statistical learning is now gaining ground, complementing the mechanistic approach.

This new approach is the result of three main phenomena:

• firstly, the ever-increasing availability of agricultural data, thanks in particular to advances in database management among the major players in the sector (cooperatives, public players, manufacturers, etc.) and the proliferation of agricultural sensors;

• secondly,...