During the week of January 19-23, 2015, the Global Futures and Strategic Foresight initiative convened a gathering and training session concerning gridded-style crop modeling hosted by ICRISAT in Patencheru, Hyderabad, India.The nine participants represented four CGIAR centers (CIMMYT, ICARDA, ICRISAT, and IFPRI) along with two Indian universities (Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University).
The training focused on the basics of assembling the input datasets, parallel execution of the DSSAT crop modeling framework, and simple interpretation of the results. Everyone was able to take the first steps to investigating a problem of interest to them, including:
- establishing maps of baseline groundnut yields in India
- the potential for chickpea production in the Middle East and North Africa
- the effect of assumptions about timing and mechanisms of irrigation on maize yields in India
- the suitability of expanding/introducing soybean production in south central India
In addition to the technical achievements, the participants developed both personal and professional camaraderie which is facilitating mutual support in the learning process and the transfer of expertise among the sister centers and our national partners.
