Kenneth J. Boote

AgMIP Crop Modeling Teams - Testing Multiple Models for Accurate Prediction of Evapotranspiration and Growth Response to Climatic Factors

Extended Abstract. The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) has the goal of intercomparing, testing, and improving crop models for their responses to climate change factors of temperature, CO2, and water availability, along with crop management, soils, and crop genetic variation. The second important goal of AgMIP is to use the models for assessing impact of climate change on agricultural production and food security. Testing of the models for accurate predictions of growth and yield against actual data sets is important, to provide confidence in the use of the models in such assessments. AgMIP crop modeling teams for wheat, maize, and rice, have intercompared 28, 23, and 14 models, respectively, for sensitivity to temperature, CO2, and rainfall (Asseng et al., 2013, Bassu et al., 2014). These teams are now actively testing the models against CO2 and temperature response data, involving time-series growth, yield and evapotranspiration (ET). A new effort on testing multiple models for crop water balance and ET processes is underway because climatic change will affect rainfed production and irrigation water demand.