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  • New Video Merges Art and Climate Science

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    The Climate Impacts Group at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia Center for Climate Systems Research announces the official release of the video Science & Art in the Time of Coronavirus, which can be viewed here: 

    https://vimeo.com/507166890

     

    In March 2020, as the coronavirus lockdown set in, the Climate Impacts Group started an initiative to connect our climate research with artistic expression. Working with visual artist Kate Doyle, we created this collaborative project to develop art with science-based themes and seek tranquility during the unprecedented times of COVID-19.

    The video consists of digital visualizations from the three research areas of the Climate Impacts Group. The work projects the effects of our changing climate on agriculture, cities, and ecosystems. Doyle uses a variety of media, including paint pours on canvas and videography, to transform the Climate Impacts Group’s scientific research into art. The science includes observations, remote sensing imagery, and simulation results.

    During the intense isolation of the first wave of the pandemic in New York City, we created this collaborative video that took form as a celebration of both science and art. The video is an intuitive record of the extraordinary time we are still living through.

    By developing the Science & Art in the Time of Coronavirus video, we share scientific stories that enable the researchers to communicate with viewers in new ways about climate change. We hope that our colorful visualizations will inspire increased understanding, innovation, and action. Blending science and art, we work to awaken a sense of broader connection to, and respect for, the Earth.

    For now, we share the Science & Art in the Time of Coronavirus video online. When our COVID-19 self-isolation period is over, we plan to showcase the science and art that went into it in a live exhibition with a (safely distanced) audience.

    Cynthia Rosenzweig is a senior research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where she heads the Climate Impacts Group, and an adjunct senior research scientist at the Columbia Center for Climate Systems Research.

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  • AgMIP Becomes a GRA Partner

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    The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) brings governments, research institutions, and other organizations together to find ways to grow more food (and more climate-resilient food systems) without increasing greenhouse gas emissions. It has 57 member countries from all regions of the world, and maintains partnerships with international and regional organizations such as The World Bank, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, CGIAR, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, World Farmers Organization, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

    [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_image src=”https://agmip.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/GRA-AgMIP-logos.jpg” _builder_version=”3.14″][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding=”26px|0px|12px|0px|false|false” _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.14″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]At its 2018 Council meeting, held in Berlin, Germany, the GRA members affirmed their strong interest to increase the participation of agricultural research organizations and earlier this year, the GRA invited AgMIP to become a formal partner of the alliance. The GRA Charter provides for partnerships to be formed between the GRA Council and other relevant organizations to ensure maximum efficiency of the global research effort and to identify opportunities for coordination and collaboration.

    Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, AgMIP Executive Committee member, represented AgMIP at the 2019 GRA Council meeting held in Bali, Indonesia earlier this month, where she presented an overview of AgMIP work to the GRA members and discussed potential areas for collaboration.

    Potential synergies and collaborative activities include:

    1. Using the modeling power in AgMIP to test and demonstrate the benefits of improved agricultural practices and realistic/prospective mitigation options for agricultural productivity, profitability, and greenhouse gas emissions and global mitigation costs.
    2. Integrating GRA knowledge and inventories into AgMIP Regional Integrated Assessment (RIA) methodology, including the Representative Agricultural Pathways (RAPs) to advise national-scale decision-making (NDCs, Science Plans, NIPs investments).
    3. Exploring trade-offs related to competition for land between bioenergy/mitigation strategies and food security.

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  • Bioenergy-Crop Model Initiative

    Goals:

    Bioenergy-crop models will be incorporated into the AgMIP suite of assessment and MIP exercises through the development of new field-scale crop model improvement pilot projects and through inclusion in the Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison (GGCMI). The objective of this initiative is to develop protocols for intercomparison and improvement of crop models for existing and emerging biomass and bioenergy crops. Focus will include enhancing the predictive capabilities for bioenergy crop production and bioproducts, and providing multi-model assessments of the potential of bioenergy crop production and feedbacks with climate change mitigation and impacts.

    Objectives:

    1. Identify current bioenergy crops models and simulation capabilities.
    2. Identify reference data sets and establish standards for bioenergy-crop model evaluation and benchmarking
    3. Develop model parameters and crop coefficients for bioenergy crops in existing models.
    4. Develop/encourage new models for advanced bioenergy production feedstocks.
    5. Produce multi-model assessment of the relative production potential of various biofuel crops in various areas and land-types (e.g. existing crop and pasture vs. marginal lands).
    6. Project the impacts of bioenergy crops on land use change and food security (in cooperation with the global AgEcon team)
    7. Project the impacts of climate change on bioenergy crop production.

    Overview

    Bioenergy crops will be grown in both traditional and non-traditional areas around the world and require intensive and longitudinal experimental studies to evaluate production potential and environmental and economic consequences. Crop models can reduce the costs involved in conducting field experiments by identifying key treatments and by extrapolating results to other regions and environmental conditions. We currently lack mechanistic models of many bioenergy crops and our intent is to encourage development of new bioenergy crop models by providing data sets from growth chamber, greenhouse, and field experiments. Models developed would answer questions such as the what? when? and where? for bioenergy production in current and future climates. Bioenergy crop models will serve as decision support systems for producers, industry, researchers and policy makers and also act as teaching tools/aids

    Next Steps

    1. Survey of interests, specific crops, participating models, and available data
    2. Identify and prepare experimental data sets for model calibration and MIP simulations
    3. Organizational meeting during AgMIP meeting Nov 1-2 in Long Beach, CA (weekend prior to ASA/CSA/SSSA)

    Candidate Crops:

    Lignocellulosic: Switchgrass, Sorghum, Miscanthus, Mixed grasses, Energycane, Napier grass Woody coppice (Willow, Poplar)

    Sugar crops: Sweet sorghum, Energy beets, Sugarcane*

    Oilseed Crops: Canola, Camelina

    Others: depending on interest

    *AgMIP-Sugarcane is coordinated by Peter Thorburn

    Crop Models (as of 06/2014): ALMANAC, pSIMS (DSSAT, APSIM, and CenW), APSIM, DSSAT, BeWhere, BioCro, EPIC, LPJmL, Ecosystem Demography v2, CLM, SiB2

    AgMIP-biofuel: Bioenergy-Crop Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project Initiative will be led by Gopal Kakani and David LeBauer.

  • Improving the Quantification of Pests, Disease, and Weeds Impact on Crops

    Improving the Quantification of Pests, Disease, and Weeds Impact on Crops

    Global Crop Loss Conference Synthesis and Executive Summary

    An international conference on global crop losses recently convened to assess how plant diseases, pests, and weeds negatively affect crop health, crop performances, ecosystems and society. The conference was motivated by the fact that the negative impacts are well recognized, but their quantification is still fragmented or incomplete.

    The Global Crop Loss Conference, held in mid-October in Paris, France, was organized by INRA, the French National Agricultural Research Institute, with inputs from 80 colleague including contributions from INRA, CIRAD (Centre for International Development), MACSUR (Modeling Climate Change with Agriculture for Food Security), AgMIP (Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project), and others.   

    Over the course of three days, 59 experts from 14 countries shared knowledge and recent findings through keynote presentations and workgroup sessions on key issues related to the characterization of pest, disease, and weed influence in agricultural system models, including impacts associated with changing climate.

    “The convening of a strong team of experts allows us to understand and better approach complex problems”, said Ken Boote (University of Florida, AgMIP Crop Modeling Co-Lead).  “For example, we may need to predict characteristic pest effects on crops rather than input pest data directly into models.”

    Together, the conference participants agreed that

    • Crop loss assessment and modelling addresses legitimate and important issues.    
    • There are methods to quantify crop losses, especially yield losses.  
    • Process-based modelling is a valid and valuable approach to yield loss analysis.  
    • Crop loss information is part of the global data revolution.  
    • Looking forward, we need to be mapping global pest and disease yield losses and crop loss data ontologies.  

    “I believe this conference has significantly increased our shared understanding of current knowledge and forward looking priorities in the characterization of pest, disease, and weed systems as well as the data that is needed to simulate the impacts in models”, said Serge Savary, (INRA, AgMIP PeDiMIP Co-Lead and Conference Chair).  

    Keynote presentations and workgroup findings can be found online at the INRA website: http://www.smach.inra.fr/en/All-the-news/crop-losses-conference-en.

    Bulleted points are elaborated in the Global Crop Loss Conference Executive Summary.   

    Global Crop Loss Conference Executive Summary

    Paris France, October 16-18, 2017

    Crop loss assessment and modelling addresses legitimate and important issues
    • Plant diseases and pests affect global crop production in many different ways, including a reduction of crop yield, but also a reduction in the shelf-life, organoleptic, or appearance of products, as well as impacts on the nutritional value of food as a result of toxin accumulation.
    • The importance of crop losses needs to be related to the variable contexts (economic, social, environmental) of agriculture, where the private and the public sectors have different goals.
    • There are several facets to crop losses caused by crop diseases, pests, and weeds
    • Aside from the quantitative, direct, and primary losses – i.e., yield losses, it is necessary to consider the massive losses which are: (1) qualitative, direct, and primary, such as mycotoxins accumulation, and (2) quantitative, direct, and secondary, such as the weakening of perennial crops exposed to plant disease epidemics.
    • Different types of crop losses must therefore be distinguished. The FAO has proposed a double classification: first, direct and indirect, and second, primary and secondary. Losses may be a direct result of the activity of pests and diseases, or be indirect via multiple impacts on the economic make-up of agriculture, or on the production system. Losses may be primary – occurring in a given growing season, or secondary – occurring over several successive seasons.
    • Further, several attributes of global crop losses to diseases, pests, and weeds need consideration: (1) their spatial and temporal variation (i.e., chronic vs. acute crop losses); (2) the level of potential losses in absence of control; and (3) the availability and efficiency of management tools.
    • There is overall consensus to consider that the increasing emergence of plant diseases is not associated with the appearance of “new” pathogens, but to the recently amplified pathogen dissemination resulting mainly from trade and human transport. Accelerated evolution of plant pathogens is also associated with selection pressures generated by specific resistance genes. Experimental work enables understanding some of the processes involved in the evolution of plant health under climate change.
    There are methods to quantify crop losses, especially yield losses
    • Quantitative estimates of crop yield loss from pests and diseases are commonly considered to be highly uncertain or imprecise, as a result of strong reliance to expert assessments or of observations which do not make use of standardized and uniform protocols.
    • Yet, International standards and procedures exist to: (1) conduct field experiments that are specifically designed to quantify crop losses; (2) quantify disease and pest injuries; and (3) measure crop losses.
    • In practice, the quantification of yield losses involves four necessary elements: (1) a quantification of injury(ies) caused by diseases, pests, and/or weeds; (2) a quantification of the attainable yield (i.e., the yield level achieved in absence of injuries); (3) a damage function translating injury into yield loss; (4) the quantification of actual (harvested) yields.
    • Yield loss data standards – “gold” and “silver” standards – may therefore be defined. The gold and silver standards would include: (1) the levels of disease or pest injuries; (2) measurements of crop growth; (3) successive development stages (phenology) of the crop; (4) crop yield. The gold standard would additionally include: (5) information on crop history; (6) details of crop management; (7) geographical location; (8) weather variables.
    Process-based modelling is a valid and valuable approach to yield loss analysis
    • A major advantage of (process-based) modelling over empirical methods lies in the ability of such models to simulate yield losses under new, different, and therefore future conditions. Yield loss modelling may thus become a key instrument for policy-development and strategic research.
    • A number of mechanistic simulation models have been developed for several of the most important world crops. These models can successfully be linked with disease or pest models to simulate yield variation and yield losses. Implementation of these models for large-scale assessment of yield losses require (1) the development of (generic) models accounting for the most frequent diseases and pests, and (2) baseline global data on crop health.
    • Main challenges in modelling yield losses through the dynamic interaction between crop growth and development, on the one hand, and pest and disease dynamics, on the other hand, include: (1) the number of (pest- or pathogen-) specific processes considered, possibly with time-steps smaller than 1 day; (2) the need to consider elements of the microclimate; (3) the inclusion of several diseases and/or pests on the same crop; (4) the lack of standardized data for disease and pest injuries; and (5) the lack of quantitative and qualitative information on production situations, including crop management and cropping system.
    Crop loss information is part of the global data revolution
    • The data revolution heralded by the United Nation has led to rapid improvements in the availability and quality of data related to agriculture and in turn crop health, but gaps still remain.
    • Technological advances mean that we can collect, process and distribute more data on the state of the biosphere and of societies than ever before.  
    • Growth in available data related to agriculture is related to the increasing number of international collaboration networks, such as GODAN (Global Open Data for Agriculture & Nutrition), the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, the Global Yield Gap and Water Productivity Atlas (GYGA), the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), and many others, some which make use of Creative Commons licences to make many of their results globally accessible.
    • Some journals and data repositories have started to publish and recognise datasets in a similar way to peer reviewed articles. This echoes new policies among the donor community.
    Looking forward: mapping global pest and disease yield losses and crop loss data ontologies
    • Global food production will have to increase substantially to meet increased demands due to population growth and changing diets. Knowing where and how much crop yields can still increase on existing land through a process of so-called sustainable intensification is therefore a relevant question.
    • The Global Yield Gap Atlas initiated in 2012 aims to map yield gaps of key food crops in all food producing countries of the world. Addition of quantitative information on yield reduction due to weeds, pests and diseases would largely complete the list of biophysical factors that explain yield gaps.
    • Based on their importance towards global food security, targets for crop loss assessment can be identified and proposed for wheat, rice, maize, potato, and soybean.
    • Generic approaches are for instance available to model yield losses in wheat and rice. These models are congruent and compatible with the on-going (crop) modelling efforts engaged in the international networks AgMiP and MacSur, as well as with the Global Yield Gap Atlas initiative.
    • A necessary step towards advancing the analysis, understanding, prediction and management of disease and pest losses is the development of a data ontology and of generic data structures where diseases and pests are properly addressed.
  • Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison Predicts Strong Negative Effects on Agriculture from Climate Change

    Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison Predicts Strong Negative Effects on Agriculture from Climate Change

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    Effects strongest in areas with greatest warming and in the tropics. 

    Agriculture is arguably the sector most affected by climate change, but assessments differ and are thus difficult to compare. As the world’s population grows, understanding which crop types and regions will be negatively affected by climate change may make the difference between adequate food supply and food insecurity. By comparing the predictions of multiple models, scientists can assess with a higher degree of accuracy the location and amount of future climatic effects on agricultural production.

    The recently released paper, “Assessing agricultural risks of climate change in the 21st century in a global gridded crop model intercomparison”, led by Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (date) compares seven global gridded crop models in order to quantify the global effects of climate change major crops. The study, coordinated by the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) as part of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP) and led out of Columbia University and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is the first of its kind to compare multiple global gridded crop models in order to improve the quality of global agricultural assessments.

    The paper presents globally consistent, protocol-based, multi-model climate change assessments for wheat, rice, corn, and soybean. Included in the study is the level of confidence, or how much uncertainty, is associated with the assessments. Results indicate strong negative effects from climate change, especially at higher levels of warming and in the tropics where developing countries are concentrated. Simulations that include realistic nitrogen availability resulted in much more severe impacts from climate change in both temperate and tropical zones.

    This implies that developing countries where nitrogen fertilization is low will have greater challenges in developing effective adaptation strategies. [A multi-dimensional ensemble was used to characterize uncertainty from global climate models, representative concentration pathways, and global gridded crop models] At the global scale, the effects of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and higher temperature on crops are identified as major sources of model disagreement.

    For the first time multiple global gridded crop models are used to show where models agree. Although there is significant agreement in the models in the lower latitude tropics and high-latitude zones, the mid-latitude temperate zones have a higher degree of uncertainty. Model improvement is required to better understand the effects of CO2, nitrogen, and high-temperatures on agricultural production in these regions and to devise targeted adaptive strategies.
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  • AgMIP at 2018 Adaptation Futures

    AgMIP at 2018 Adaptation Futures

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    AgMIP, together with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is co-hosting Session S154 on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at 11:30 am in venue 1.64 entitled Improving resilience for food and health in Africa with science.  The session regards the use of climate and weather information for food and health-related decision making in Africa. The goal is to present and discuss with stakeholders the ongoing efforts in this topic to inform future programming.

    With major support from UK DFID, AgMIP has developed new methods by which regional researchers and stakeholders co-assess likely impacts to agriculture, thereby enhancing the capacity of national planners to prioritize better performing adaptation pathways for managing current and future climate stresses. In Mozambique and Ethiopia, the WHO and USAID are piloting work in the area of climate-sensitive health risks, as well as including a broader focus on how to tackle regional health issues throughout Africa using a science-based approach.

    Speakers include:  Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Zimbabwe:  Linking regional integrated assessments with decision making for nutrition-sensitive, climate-resilient and sustainable farming systems in semi-arid Zimbabwe; Olivier Crespo, University of Cape Town, South Africa: Changes in South Africa’s staple basket by 2050; Sithembile Ndema Mwamakamba, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), South Africa: Strengthening Evidence-Based Climate Change Adaptation Policies in the Southern and East African Region; Sally Edwards, World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa, Republic of the Congo:  Implementation of WHO Framework for Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change in Africa: Experience of Ethiopia; Eduardo Samo Gudo, National Institute of Health, Mozambique: Integrating climate science into public health decision making in Mozambique; and Fernanda Zermoglio, Chemonics International, United States of America: Climate Change and Health in Mozambique: Impacts on Diarrheal Disease and Malaria.

    The session has been organized by Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA-Goddard Institute for Space Science Studies, located at Columbia University in the City of New York (US), and USAID, in partnership with Climate Analytics (Germany) and the World Health Organization (Switzerland). The session will be chaired by Delphine Deryng, Senior Advisor at Climate Analytics.
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  • AgMIP Impacts Explorer

    AgMIP Impacts Explorer

    The Impacts Explorer is built on stakeholder assessment and was created to bridge the gap between research outputs and easily accessible information. The goal is to create easy access to real time and future projections of risk and vulnerabilities in the agricultural sector plus implications of food security. This allows a wide variety of audiences to be able to explore farming systems vulnerability and adaptation in a changing world.

    The stakeholder engagement made it possible to fully understand what was needed to fill the existing gap and the Impacts Explorer was developed to fulfill the needs expressed by the stakeholders. The tool is suitable for users with different areas of interest as well as levels of expertise due to its 3 level output that includes Regional Summaries, Spatial Dashboard and Data Exploration. The Impacts Explorer will be one of several tools discussed at the AgMIP7 global workshop in San José, Costa Rica, April 24-26, 2018.

     

     

    Impacts Explorer: Spatial Dashboard overview of visualized results for Nkayi, Zimbabwe.
    The creation of AgMIP Impacts Explorer is a collaboration of scientists and staff at Columbia University/GISS, Oregon State University, the University of Florida, and Wageningen University. The tool co-design and function was implemented by Wageningen Environmental Research. Results feature the work of the AgMIP Regional Research Teams in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The project was funded by the UKAid and the input from stakeholders throughout the process has been and is still very much appreciated.

    The Impacts Explorer is built on years of research and AgMIP7 is a great opportunity for feedback and evaluation to ensure that the stakeholder’s needs have been met and to engage new users. As the intent is to continue to integrate data and key messages that are decision oriented, the stakeholder feedback is critical to ensure that expressed needs are being accounted for.

    A continued integration of data and key messages will further bridge the gap between research outputs and easily accessible information. To enhance the quality of the Impacts Explorer, future users and stakeholders will be interviewed to give feedback on the current version. At the AgMIP7 global conference, stakeholder feedback from the Latin American community among others will be integrated for the first time and the tool will be on display with a booth for new users to engage and provide feedback.

     

    Link: AgMIP Impacts Explorer 

     

     

  • Step Back to Step Forward – Toward Resilience and Hardier Crops in India

    Step Back to Step Forward – Toward Resilience and Hardier Crops in India

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    Highlights of a recently published article on AgMIP India work: Indian agriculture in the face of climate change

    By: Amanda Evengaard and Carolyn Mutter

    In India, people and especially farmers, depend on the monsoon. The timing and amount of the rain is of high importance. Shifts in either can severely impact agriculture unless they are accompanied by shifts in plant varieties, planting practices, or management, collectively called ‘adaptations’.  Yet it is often not clear what adaptations to prioritize, or how to bundle them. Farmers and policy-makers alike want to know the likelihood of adaptations helping to avoid falling net returns, declining per capita income, or other factors.

    ‘’The uncertain future of Indian agriculture’’ (view the article here), was recently published in Fountainink magazine.  The article, authored by GBSNP Varma, highlights research from the AgMIP Research Teams working in the Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) and South India.  Climate change impacts on agriculture is important to understand because India’s dependence on successful agricultural production is high. As noted in the article, more than 56% of people in Tamil Nadu depend on agriculture (and related sectors).  Additionally, for 65% of the state’s population, rural agriculture is the most important source of livelihood.  Vellingri Geethalakshmi, AgMIP South India Principal Investigator shares how farmers ‘’agonize over hotter summers, unseasonal rain, and extreme fluctuations in the amount of precipitation’’.  

    Subash (second from left) with farmers in Modinagar during the north India study. Photo: Special arrangement.

     

    The article summarizes findings from model-based assessments of climate variability and change for agricultural systems.  The science teams consider how past, current and likely future climate could affect staple crops, livestock, and households in an agricultural community.  The method provides estimates of the percentage of the population that will benefit from uptake of adaptations tested for current and future scenarios called ‘agricultural pathways’ that are established with stakeholders and planners in the study regions.  This helps make sure exploration and prioritization of decisions about adaptations include contexts of current as well as future direction in policy and planning. An area to further develop involves “more farming/cropping systems in India to get a real estimate of the impacts of climate change,” notes Subash.

    AgMIP methods, they have helped to co-developed them.  An important component of the involves stepping back and engaging stakeholders about the role of models in helping with decisions.  Together, researchers and stakeholders establish the plausible scenarios or pathways envisioned for the future. Quantifying these in models enables the forward-looking analyses of how adaptations applied now may (or may not) address longer term and cumulative effects of changing climate.    

    In consideration of the findings, author GBSNP Varma observes that the transition away from heritage crops to those consisting mostly of wheat and rice may be exacerbating the impact felt from the increased temperatures and changing rainfall patterns for the relatively recently introduced staple crops, and considers whether climate forces may encourage a return to a more diverse food basket than wheat and rice even if official policies do not.  Previously, the Indian diet mostly consisted of millet, sorghum and pulses with only small portions of rice and wheat. Sonali McDermid, Climate scientist and assistant professor at New York University, concurs that there may be a need to: “Revert toward the older tradition, combining plants that are both climate-tolerant and nutritionally dense. That’s good in a way. I think that’s inevitable, something that we should welcome.” 

    Sonali McDermid has studied the Indian monsoon processes for many years. Photo: Special arrangement.

     

    The regional studies undertaken in India have counterparts that have been advanced in West, East, and Southern Africa and Pakistan, with results from each available for viewing in a beta ‘Impacts Explorer’ (insert link), a web based information and knowledge exploration tool.  In addition, the work of the researchers links to a new AgMIP initiative to link results across scales through Coordinated Global and Regional Assessments.

    These and other topics will be presented and discussed at the forthcoming Seventh Global Workshop of AgMIP (AgMIP7; April 24-26, 2018, San José, Costa Rica) at the headquarters of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).  IICA and AgMIP have co-organized AgMIP7 as a mix of plenary, parallel presentation, and work sessions to share recent results of scientists in the AgMIP community, and to engage interested scientists in collaborative planning of priority research.  Scientists in many countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have expressed interest to join AgMIP and advance integrated assessments in their regions, with the aim to render better information on which to establish national development plans and commitments.  Find more information on the sessions and presenters of the AgMIP7 global workshop here. 

    View the article here.

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  • Now Available: Impacts Explorer walk-through video

    Now Available: Impacts Explorer walk-through video

    Demonstration video now provides walk-through for how to view product

    A walk-through video is now available to provide a new way to learn about the Impacts Explorer tool. The video demonstrates and explains the key elements of the visualization tool and how to navigate and use the 3 level outputs. The video was developed to give a detailed walk-through that can increase the understanding of how and what to use the tool for.

     

     

    The Impacts Explorer is built on stakeholder assessment and was created to bridge the gap between research outputs and easily accessible information. The goal is to create easy access to real time and future projections of risk and vulnerabilities in the agricultural sector plus implications of food security. This allows a wide variety of audiences to be able to explore farming systems vulnerability and adaptation in a changing world.

    The stakeholder engagement made it possible to fully understand what was needed to fill the existing gap and the Impacts Explorer was developed to fulfill the needs expressed by the stakeholders. The tool is suitable for users with different areas of interest as well as levels of expertise due to its 3 level output that includes Regional Summaries, Spatial Dashboard and Data Exploration. The Impacts Explorer will be one of several tools discussed at the AgMIP7 global workshop in San José, Costa Rica, April 24-26, 2018.

    The creation of AgMIP Impacts Explorer is a collaboration of scientists and staff at Columbia University/GISS, Oregon State University, the University of Florida, and Wageningen University.  The tool co-design and function was implemented by Wageningen Environmental Research.  Results feature the work of the AgMIP Regional Research Teams in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.  The project was funded by the UKAid and the input from stakeholders throughout the process has been and is still very much appreciated.

    The Impacts Explorer is built on years of research and AgMIP7 is a great opportunity for feedback and evaluation to ensure that the stakeholder’s needs have been met and to engage new users. As the intent is to continue to integrate data and key messages that are decision oriented, the stakeholder feedback is critical to ensure that expressed needs are being accounted for.

    A continued integration of data and key messages will further bridge the gap between research outputs and easily accessible information. To enhance the quality of the Impacts Explorer, future users and stakeholders will be interviewed to give feedback on the current version. At the AgMIP7 global conference, stakeholder feedback from the Latin American community among others will be integrated for the first time and the tool will be on display with a booth for new users to engage and provide feedback.

     

    Want to be involved and provide feedback? Contact Drs. C Rosenzweig, A Ruane, or C Mutter at: info@agmip.org and A Evengaard at: amanda.agmip@gmail.com

    View the AgMIP Impacts Explorer at http://agmip-ie.alterra.wur.nl.  

    A walk-through pdf of the AgMIP Impacts Explorer is also available here.

  • AgMIP Establishes a New Executive Committee

    AgMIP Establishes a New Executive Committee

    The Steering Council Co-Chairs of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Program announce the newly established Executive Committee, and its members.

    By: Greg Reppucci

    The evolution in leadership from Co-Principal Investigators to an Executive Committee reflects the growing interest in, and impact of, scientific contributions of the AgMIP community through its global network of researchers.

    The Executive Committee Members are: John Antle, Senthold Asseng, Jerry Hatfield, Hermann Lotze-Campen, Cynthia Rosenzweig and Anthony Whitbread. 

    The Members of the Executive Committee are internationally recognized leaders for their sustained scientific and technical contributions to agricultural sciences, and they will play a major role in developing the AgMIP scientific pillars, partnerships, protocols, and projects, with active participation of AgMIP researchers and sponsors. In so doing, they will advance the rigor and impact of agricultural systems research undertaken by the AgMIP community. Each Member serves at the invitation of the Steering Council, and with the support and endorsement of their home institution, where they retain their primary appointment.

    The Steering Council, on behalf of the international AgMIP community, congratulates the Members on their appointment in this new role, and thanks them in advance for their generous offer of time and energy to ensure a vibrant and responsive AgMIP for the years to come. We recognize, and greatly appreciate the Members’ demonstrated research and leadership capacities, and their commitment to:

    • Develop new initiatives to keep AgMIP at the forefront of agricultural systems research and modeling
    • Lead development of major research, capacity development, and science communication proposals
    • Contribute to shared fundraising in support of AgMIP coordination including major topical workshops and support for collaboration on research projects and activities
    • Provide scientific and technical oversight to AgMIP science pillars and related activities
    • Serve as AgMIP Ambassadors to national and international meetings and forums
    • Engage regularly with the AgMIP community to review and advance research plans and priorities
    • Recruit researchers, stakeholders and sponsors to support and implement AgMIP plans and priorities

    About the Executive Committee Members

    John Antle, Oregon State University, USA 

    Dr. John Antle is a Professor in the Department of Applied Economics at Oregon State University and a University Fellow at Resources for the Future. His AgMIP research contributions focus on the sustainability of agricultural systems in industrialized and developing countries, including climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation in agriculture; assessment of environmental and social impacts of agricultural technologies; and geologic carbon sequestration. He is a Fellow and past President of the American Agricultural Economics Association and serves as Co-Leader of the AgMIP Regional Economics team.

    Senthold Asseng, University of Florida, USA 

    Dr. Senthold Asseng is a Professor in the Agricultural & Biological Engineering Department at University of Florida. He has contributed to AgMIP in many capacities. Most notably, as a Co-Leader of the AgMIP-Wheat team, Dr. Asseng has been at the forefront of both US-based and internationally-organized research projects and his work has helped set the standard for AgMIP crop model intercomparisons. Additionally, Dr. Asseng has developed and linked AgMIP networks both regionally and globally, and his commitment to expanding the AgMIP network for the betterment of research is extremely valuable.

    Jerry Hatfield, US Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, USA

    Dr. Jerry L. Hatfield is currently the Laboratory Director of the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment. His personal research focuses on quantifying the interactions among the components of the soil-plant-atmosphere system to quantify resilience of cropping systems to climate change. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, and past President of the American Society of Agronomy. Dr. Hatfield serves as Co-Leader of the AgMIP Crop-Water-ET Initiative.

    Hermann Lotze-Campen, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research (PIK) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), Germany

    Dr. Hermann Lotze-Campen is Chair of Research Domain Climate Impacts and Vulnerabilities at PIK and Professor of Sustainable Land Use and Climate Change at HU Berlin. He is Co-Leader of the AgMIP Global Economics Team and is committed to linking global analysis with Regional Integrated Assessments. Moreover, he is also committed to connecting AgMIP work beyond AgMIP communities. He is a member of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP), coordinated in his Research Domain at PIK, and is eager to strengthen connections between initiatives.

    Cynthia Rosenzweig, NASA-Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Columbia University, USA 

    Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig is Senior Research Scientist at NASA GISS where she heads the Climate Impacts Group. She is also Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at the Columbia University Earth Institute and a Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at Barnard College. She is currently spearheading the AgMIP Coordinated Global and Regional Assessment on the effects of climate change on the food system, including nutrition. Dr. Rosenzweig is also Coordinating Lead Author of the Food Security Chapter for the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land.

    Anthony Whitbread, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India

    Dr. Anthony Whitbread is Research Program Director of the Innovations Systems in the Drylands, ICRISAT, and a Professor and former Chair of the Crop Production Systems in the Tropics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. He has been a key partner with AgMIP in its Regional Research Team work to develop and utilize Regional Integrated Assessments and has made strong contributions to agricultural modeling by promoting a diverse range of modeling frameworks (including livestock), tools, and scales to meet the stakeholders’ needs. His work throughout the CGIAR centers has connected modelers, researchers, and stakeholders across the globe.

    Contributed by: Ghassem R. Asrar, PhD, Director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Maryland, and AgMIP Steering Council Co-Chair, and Jean-François Soussana, PhD, Vice-President for International Policy at INRA, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, and AgMIP Steering Council Co-Chair.

    Contact: Carolyn Z. Mutter, PhD, AgMIP International Program Manager (program@agmip.org)