Scientists Develop Crop Models to Feed 9 Billion People by Mid-Century

An international team of scientists from the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) recently unveiled a new crop modeling system. The system integrates multiple crop simulations with improved climate change models to better forecast food production to feed the world's growing population projected to be at 9 billion by mid-century.

The effort has produced a new set of information that better predicts global wheat yields, according to Bruno Basso, AgMIP member and ecosystem scientist from Michigan State University (MSU).  Basso said that "by using an ensemble of crop and climate models, we can understand how increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, along with temperature increases and precipitation changes, will affect wheat yield globally." He added that the crop models can help guide developed and developing countries as they adapt to changing climate and create policies to improve food security and feed more people.

Basso is also a member of MSU's Global Water Initiative who developed the System Approach for Land-Use Sustainability model (SALU). The SALU is a new generation tool to forecast crop, soil, water, and nutrient conditions in current and future climates; evaluate crop rotations, planting dates, irrigation and fertilizer use; and project crop yields and their impact on the land.

For more information about this research, read the news release at http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/how-do-you-feed-9-billion-people/.