The Agap research unit at the International Symposium on Crop Modelling (iCROPM2020)

Between 3 and 5 February 2020, the second edition of the International Symposium on Crop Modelling (iCROPM2020), organized by CIRAD, INRAE and INRIA with the support of I-SITE MUSE and #DigitAg, brought together in Montpellier a community of 400 modelers from 50 different countries, with the exception of China, which was already confined.

Four years after the first International Symposium on Crop Modelling in Berlin (iCROPM2016), crop modelers from the five continents met at the Corum in Montpellier to exchange on advances in crop modelling and identify challenges and new opportunities for future research.

As a result of the pressure of climate change on agricultural production, crop modelling developed since the 1980s and 1990s is proving particularly relevant today. The goal is to simulate how crops will react and anticipate ways of adapting to maintain agricultural production and ensure global food security.

The workshop was opened by Michel Eddi (CIRAD), Philippe Hisinger (INRAE) and Philippe Caron (MUSE).

All types and systems of crops (field crops such as wheat, maize, rice, soybean, sunflower, grasslands, tropical crops, intercrops) in all regions of the world (temperate and tropical climates) were reviewed during 6 sessions:

  • Session I: Improvement of crop models
  • Session II: Crop modelling for ecological intensification
  • Session III: Linking crop/plant models and genetics
  • Session IV: Linking crop models to data stream systems in the digital age
  • Session V: Crop modelling for risk and impact assessment
  • Session VI: Methods and software to support modelling activities

100 oral communications and 200 posters were presented in 3 days by the researchers in 3 parallel sessions which were all well attended.

At the end of this conference, special issues will be published in 3 prestigious journals:

  1. in silico Plants on the topic "Linking Crop/Plant Models and Genetics".

Contact Karine Chenu (karine.chenu@uq.edu.au)

  1. The Journal of Agricultural Science

Contact Gerrit Hoogenboom (gerrit@ufl.edu)

  1. Field Crops Research on the topic "Crop modelling for ecological intensification".

Contact Marc Corbeels (marc.corbeels@cirad.fr)

Twelve workshops (side-events) were organized on 6 and 7 February 2020 on the Agropolis and CIRAD sites to enable researchers coming to iCROPM2020 to work together on international projects or on more specialized topics. They were attended by more than 200 researchers. Two, in particular, were led by CIRAD: one on the Stics platform and another on Phenotyping and modelling of plant anchorage and physiology. 

Published: 24/04/2020