# A Multiple-Input Neural Network Model for Predicting Cotton Production Quantity: A Case Study
## 3 Data  
In our research, the data concern the cotton yield in kilograms per 0.1 hectare from 350 sampling sites of the Thessaly plain, during the years 2008-2010. For each sampling site, a number of features were obtained from three main categories: _soil_ features, _cultivation management_ features, and _yield management_ features. The data were divided into a training set (273 instances) which consists of the yield production during 2008 and 2009, which ensures a substantial amount of data for training and testing set (119 instances) containing yield production during 2010, which ensures that it will be performed with a considerable amount of unseen data. It is also worth mentioning that the maximum cotton production in Greece indicated no significant year-to-year fluctuations and has remained rather stable during the last twenty years. This implies that the current productions are not considerably different from the potential. Finally, the used data contained no missing values, while the outlier prices were not removed for not destroying the dynamics of data. Tables 1-3 present the set of features concerning soil, cultivation management and yield management features, respectively, as well as a brief description for each feature. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l} \hline \hline
**Feature** & **Description** & **Type** & **Values** \\ \hline Order & Pedogenic soil order & Nominal & \{Alfisol, Inceptisol, Vertisol\} \\ Drainage & Soil drainage & Ordinal & \{Very poorly, Poorly, Somewhat poorly, Moderately, Well, Very well\} \\ CaCO\({}_{3}\) & Calcium carbonates & Ordinal & \{None, slight, Some, Strong\} \\ Texture\({}_{\text{}}\) & Soil texture in depth: 0–25 cm & Numerical (Real) & \{5,60\} \\ Texture\({}_{\text{}}\) & Soil texture in depth: 25–75 cm & Numerical (Real) & \{9,60\} \\ Texture\({}_{\text{}}\) & Soil texture in depth: 75–150 cm & Numerical (Real) & \{9,18.5\} \\ Slope & Percentage of slope & Ordinal & \{Little, Moderate, High\} \\ Erosion & Soil erosion & Ordinal & \{No erosion, Slightly, Moderately, Very, Severely\} \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: List of soil features. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l} \hline \hline
**Feature** & **Description** & **Type** & **Values** \\ \hline Re-sowing & Re-sowing was or not performed & Nominal (Binary) & \{True, False\} \\ Variety & Variety of seed & Nominal & \{Acals (Zeta-0/Zeta-5), 45\} \\ Seed & Kilograms of seed per 0.1 hectare & Numerical (Real) & \{2,7\} \\ Germination & Percentage of germination & Numerical (Percentage) & \([0,100]\) \\ spacingOut & Spacing out & Categorical (Binary) & \{True, False\} \\ XN & Kilograms of nitrogen \(N\)-\(NO_{3}\) per 0.1 hectare in oxide form & Numerical (Real) & \([0,24]\) \\ XP & Kilograms of phosphorus \(P\)-\(PO_{4}\) per 0.1 hectare in oxide form & Numerical (Real) & \([0,24]\) \\ Weeding & Weed control before sowing & Nominal (Binary) & \{True, False\} \\ SPRAY\({}_{1}\) & Weed control after emergence & Nominal (Binary) & \{True, False\} \\ SPRAY\({}_{2}\) & Control for _Hilcoergar animea_ & Numerical (Integer) & \([0,6]\) \\ SPRAY\({}_{3}\) & Insect control for aphids sp. & Numerical (Integer) & \([1,7]\) \\ Irger & Irrigation before germination & Numerical (Real) & \([0,4]\) \\ Irgat & Irrigation after emergence & Numerical (Real) & \([2,14]\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: List of cultivation management features. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l} \hline \hline
**Feature** & **Description** & **Type** & **Values** \\ \hline Defolation & If defoliation was performed. & Nominal (Binary) & \{True, False\} \\ prodLoss & Loss of production due to extreme climatic conditions & Numerical (Percentage) & \{0,100\} \\ prevUse & Previous use of the farm & Nominal & \{One year cereals, One year cotton, Two years cotton, Three or four years cotton\} \\ typeHarv & Type of harvesting & Nominal & \{By hand, Mechanized\}. \\ Days & Number of days between sowing and harvesting & Numerical (Integer) & \{\([141,257]\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}