Understanding Options for Agricultural Production: 7 (System Approaches for Sustainable Agricultural Development, 7) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792348338 ISBN 13: 9780792348337

Publisher: Springer, 1998

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

`... it is a `must' book for current or potential users of the DSSAT system and it also could be recommended for research scientists interested in developing and applying crop models and decision support systems in agriculture. This is a good book and it would be a valuable contribution to relevant libraries.'
Plant Growth Regulation, 26 (1998)

Synopsis:

"Understanding Options for Agricultural Production" is a synthesis of a global multidisciplinary network of scientists from around the world. This book describes the outputs of the IBSNAT network, including topics on data standards and the minimum data set, crop simulation models of major food crops, and application programs to assess risk resulting from implementation of different management options and strategies. These outputs were integrated into a single portable and functional software product referred to as DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer).Complete descriptions of the CERES, CROPGRO, SUBSTOR, and CROPSIM models in DSSAT are presented for the first time by their developers. Applications of these models and DSSAT to explore options and outcomes, ranging from irrigation and fertilizer management at the plot level, to global climate change studies at the country level, are presented by users of the systems approach to agricultural production and development in both developing and more developed countries.

About this edition

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0792348338
• ISBN 13: 9780792348337
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 413
• Editor: Tsuji G.Y., Hoogenboom G., Thornton P.K.