Controlling rain-splashed crop diseases is an extremely difficult task. Their spread is a complicated process and large-scale field surveys to determine the extent of an incursion over a large area are often economically intractable. A failed attempt at control or eradication of a pathogen can be very costly. In 1996 there was a major incursion of lupin anthracnose in Western Australia, which c...

Because climate has such a profound effect on the distribution and abundance of invertebrates, quantification of climatic influences on insects has been of considerable interest to entomologists for well over a century. While simple predictive models were developed early on, easier access to computers in the 1970s resulted in the development of computer based models to predict the biotic potent...

Currently, crop physiological responses to waterlogging are considered only in a few models and limited way. Here, we examine the process bases of seven contemporary developed model growth waterlogged conditions. The representation plant recovery these is over-simplified, while adaptation or phenotypic plasticity due often not considered. Aeration stress conceptualisation varies from use simple...

Because yield maps provide only synthetic information on the whole crop cycle, it appears necessary to supplement them with more analytical tools enabling to explain the spatial variations in measured yield and to make diagnosis. Here we tested two candidate methods: simulation modelling and radiometric mapping of green leaf area index (GLAI) after anthesis, on a 15-ha wheat-cropped field with ...

The simulation of carbon allocation among plant organs is one of the weakest features of crop growth models. This paper briefly discusses five concepts of modelling carbon partitioning: 1. Descriptive allometry, proposing a predetermined ratio between the (relative) growth rates of plant organs; 2. Functional equilibrium, proposing an equilibrium between root and shoot activity; 3. Canonical mo...

Improved assessment methods for agriculture production systems are needed to identify the risks and opportunities related to global changes in climate, markets and policies, and the consequences of alternative options of coping with and mitigating the changes. This paper presents the AGRISIMU modelling framework developed for ex-ante assessment of alternative policy and management options meant...

Progress in breeding higher-yielding crop plants would be greatly accelerated if the phenotypic consequences of making changes to the genetic makeup of an organism could be reliably predicted. Developing a predictive capacity that scales from genotype to phenotype is impeded by biological complexities associated with genetic controls, environmental effects and interactions among plant growth an...

A model to predict Septoria tritici blotch (STB) and leaf rust effects on wheat growth was constructed and evaluated in two steps. At the leaf scale, Bastiaans' approach that predicts the relative photosynthesis of a wheat leaf infected with a single disease, was extended to the case of two diseases, one biotrophic and one necrotrophic by considering the leaf rust-STB complex. A glasshouse expe...

Abstract A broad scope of crop models with varying demands on data inputs is being used for several purposes, such as possible adaptation strategies to control climate change impacts future production, management decisions, and policies. constant challenge model simulation, especially performance projections impact studies under varied conditions, the unavailability reliable historical calibrat...