"Crop Modeling and Decision Support" presents 36 papers selected from the International Symposium on Crop Modeling and Decision Support (ISCMDS-2008), held at Nanjing of China from 19th to 22nd in April, 2008. Many of these papers show the recent advances in modeling crop and soil processes, crop productivity, plant architecture and climate change; the rests describe the developments in model-based decision support systems (DSS), model applications, and integration of crop models with other information technologies. The book is intended for researchers, teachers, engineers, and graduate students on crop modeling and decision support. Dr. Weixing Cao is a professor at Nanjing Agricultural University, China.
"Crop Modeling and Decision Support" presents 36 papers selected from the International Symposium on Crop Modeling and Decision Support (ISCMDS-2008), held at Nanjing of China from 19th to 22nd in April, 2008. Many of these papers show the recent advances in modeling crop and soil processes, crop productivity, plant architecture and climate change; the rests describe the developments in model-based decision support systems (DSS), model applications, and integration of crop models with other information technologies. The book is intended for researchers, teachers, engineers, and graduate students on crop modeling and decision support. Dr. Weixing Cao is a professor at Nanjing Agricultural University, China.
Crop modelling has huge potential to improve decision making in farming. This collection reviews advances in next-generation models focused on user needs at the whole farm system and landscape scale.
The International Consortium for Agricultural Systems Applications; The decision support system for agrotechnology transfer version 3.0; Soil site-specific management: using soil spatial variability as a tool for land management practices; Using CROPGRO to evaluate grain legume response to climatic factors; Some potential applications of simulation models for cropping systems in Italy; Crop growth simulation Potchefstroom, South Africa; IRDDESS: irrigation district decision support system; Expert-N: a prototype building block system for nitrogen simulations models; Application of soybean crop models in Brazil; Testing and application of simulation models in bean-based farming systems in Guatemala; Evaluation and application of the dry bean and soybean models; An object-oriented process-level farming system simulator; Integration of crop simulation models and geographic information systems for farm-level applications; WIMOVAC: Windows Intuitive Model of Vegetation Response to Atmosphere and Climate Change; Development of a simulation models for evaluating hypotheses concerning the functioning of wheat crop systems; Development of a decision support systems for nitrogen fertilizer management for grain and groundwater qualities; A systems research approach using crop models in Albania; Relating environmental variables to crop growth and development; Developing and testing the CANEGRO model in Thailand; Best management practice decision support system for soybean; The ORYZA1 model for potential production of rice; Potential applications of crop models and decision support systems by the soil conservation service; Irrigated crop management in Portugal; Assessing the adapability of durum wheat genotypes to italian growing areas using crop simulation models; Using crop silumation models to support agricultural research planning in Mexico; Potential application of crop models and decision support systems: providing agrometeorological services in Trinidad and Tobago; Possibilities for yield increase and sustainability of cropping systems in Tanzania; Development of decision support systems for weed management; An integrated approach to assessing soil fertility and climatic interactions in pilot maize-producing areas of Kenya; Effects of predicted minimum and maximum temperature changes on wheat yields in the Great Plains of the United States: a simulation study; Using models to improve bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) production in the States of Aragua and Carabobo, Venezuela; Real-time yield forecasting in Burkina Faso.
The first premise of this book is that farmers need access to options for improving their situation. In agricultural terms, these options might be manage ment alternatives or different crops to grow, that can stabilize or increase household income, that reduce soil degradation and dependence on off-farm inputs, or that exploit local market opportunities. Farmers need a facilitating environment, in which affordable credit is available if needed, in which policies are conducive to judicious management of natural resources, and in which costs and prices of production are stable. Another key ingredient of this facilitating environment is information: an understanding of which options are viable, how these operate at the farm level, and what their impact may be on the things that farmers perceive as being important. The second premise is that systems analysis and simulation have an impor tant role to play in fostering this understanding of options, traditional field experimentation being time-consuming and costly. This book summarizes the activities of the International Benchmark Sites Network for Agrotechnology Transfer (IBSNAT) project, an international initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). IBSNAT was an attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of understanding options through systems analysis and simulation for the ultimate benefit of farm households in the tropics and subtropics. The idea for the book was first suggested at one of the last IBSNAT group meetings held at the University of Hawaii in 1993.
Most books covering the use of computer models in agricultural management systems target only one or two types of models. There are few texts available that cover the subject of systems modeling comprehensively and that deal with various approaches, applications, evaluations, and uses for technology transfer. Agricultural System Models in Field Res
Models of crop growth and development were conceived originally for scientific purposes. Typically, they describe the mechanisms of crop production, development from emergence through tuber initiation to senescence determined by temperature and day-length. Growth is driven by solar radiation intercepted by the foliage. Yields are enhanced by the availability of water and nutrients and may be reduced by pests, diseases and weeds. The scientific models describing the processes involved are leaving the research institutes and increasingly are becoming a means of knowledge transfer for students, and most importantly, to growers and their intermediaries such as extensionists and consultants. Many decision support systems (DSS) have a mechanistic model core that assures their robustness and reliability. This book gives an overview of model-based DSS in potato production. Decision support systems are used by the processing industry to guide them to promising production areas and by breeders to identify the ideal genotype for such environments. Consultants and soil laboratories use them as well as farmers to optimize the use of nitrogen, water and chemicals to control insects, nematodes, late blight and weeds. The systems, making use of models and sensing techniques, improve yield and quality while allowing their users to improve the efficiency of use of resources, thus generating positive effects for profits and for the environment. The book also gives examples of new introductions of DSS and farmers responses. The book is intended for researchers wanting to bring their models to practice, students to learn bout DSS, intermediaries and growers to improve the performance of the potato industry or of other commodities for which potato serves as an example.
Crop production depends on the successful implementation of the soil, water, and nutrient management technologies. Food production by the year 2020 needs to be increased by 50 percent more than the present levels to satisfy the needs of around 8 billion people. Much of the increase would have to come from intensification of agricultural production. Importance of wise usage of water, nutrient management, and tillage in the agricultural sector for sustaining agricultural growth and slowing down environmental degradation calls for urgent attention of researchers, planners, and policy makers. Crop models enable researchers to promptly speculate on the long-term consequences of changes in agricultural practices. In addition, cropping systems, under different conditions, are making it possible to identify the adaptations required to respond to changes. This book adopts an interdisciplinary approach and contributes to this new vision. Leading authors analyze topics related to crop production technologies. The efforts have been made to keep the language as simple as possible, keeping in mind the readers of different language origins. The emphasis has been on general descriptions and principles of each topic, technical details, original research work, and modeling aspects. However, the comprehensive journal references in each area should enable the reader to pursue further studies of special interest. The subject has been presented through fifteen chapters to clearly specify different topics for convenience of the readers.
