Enhancing agricultural research and precision management for subsistence farming by integrating system models with experiments / Dennis J. Timlin, Saseendran S. Anapalli.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. -- Introduction: system models integrated with experiments can be useful tools to develop improved management practices for subsistence farming to address increased intensification and climate change -- 2. -- Modeling soil erosion impacts and trade-offs of sustainable land management practices in the upper tana region of the central highlands in Kenya -- 3. -- Using crop simulation models as tools to quantify effects of crop management practices and climate change scenarios on wheat yields in northern Ethiopia -- 4. -- The role of crop simulation modeling in managing fertilizer use in maize production systems in northern Ghana -- 5. -- Modeling water dynamics for assessing and managing ecosystem services in India -- 6. -- Modeling agricultural hydrology and water productivity to enhance water management in the arid irrigation district of China -- 7. -- Use of data and models in simulating regional and geospatial variations in climate change impacts on rice and barley in the republic of Korea -- 8. -- Constraints to productivity of subsistence dryland agroecosystems in the fertile crescent: simulation and statistical modeling.

"Environmental concerns of the general public, droughts, and climate change effects require continual adaptation and optimization of agricultural systems through changes in cropping and management. Advancement of science and technology to achieve these changes requires cutting-edge field research, using a quantitative whole-system approach. Process-based models of agricultural systems integrated with field research provide such a systems approach. The models help: 1) quantify field research results in terms of the fundamental theory and concepts that are broadly applicable beyond the site-specific empirical relationships, 2) predict experimental results from knowledge of the fundamental factors that determine the environment and plant growth under different climates, 3) extend the experimental results to longer term weather conditions beyond the limited duration of the field experiments and to other soil types and climates in the area outside the experimental plots, and 4) use extended results to develop broad-based precision management decision support tools or simple management guidelines for producers and other users, which may include linkage to economic and social considerations. As a result, the models are also continually improved and serve as an evolving theoretical backbone of complex agricultural system research and information transfer. In the last three decades, considerable progress has been made on the applications of models for evaluating and improving current agricultural systems for optimal management of water, nutrients, and cultivar resources under varying climates, especially in developed countries. Importantly, these applications were made in collaboration with field research scientists at several locations. Key areas of further trans-disciplinary research, synthesis, and improvement of the modeling backbone have also been identified"-- Provided by publisher.

About the Author
Jerry Hatfield is an affiliate professor of agronomy at Iowa State.

Mannava Sivakumar is the director of Climate Prediction and Adaptation Branch in the World Meteorological Organization.

John Praeger is a researcher at the USDA-ARS at the National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames, IA.