Cropping Systems

Farming entails a great deal of choices and uncertainties. From season to season, weather varies, price fluctuates, soil degrades, pest damages, and climate changes. Farmers everywhere must cope with these uncertainties. Throughout the history of agriculture, many options have been developed to help manage these risks, increase yields, increase efficiency, and, more recently, promote the sustainability of the overall system.

Crop systems models can help researchers estimate the future of food security under climate scenarios. Many crop models are known to exist around the world - for different crops with varying complexities, yet it is not easy to find the right model for the right problem. To better understand the global extent of crop model development and to identify gaps in capabilities, HarvestChoice participated in an initiative to conduct a rapid meta-analysis of crop models using on-line survey to the crop modeling community in the world. Here are the key findings.