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The potential yield of crops is not usually realised on farms creating yield gaps. Methods are needed to diagnose yield gaps and to select interventions. One method is the boundary line model in which the upper bound of a plot of yield against a potentially limiting factor is viewed as the most efficient response to that factor and anything below it has a yield gap caused by inefficiency of other factors. If many factors are studied, the cause of the yield gap can be identified (yield gap analysis, YGA). Though the boundary line is agronomically interpretable, its estimation and statistical inference are not straightforward and there is no standard method to fit it to data.

We review the different methods used to fit the boundary line, their strengths and weaknesses, interpretation, factors influencing the choice of method and its impact on YGA.

We searched for articles that used boundary lines for YGA …