ABSTRACT
Crop modelling can play a signicant part in systems approaches by providing a powerful capability for scenario analysis. Crop modelling has developed extensively over the past 30 years and a diverse range of crops models are now available. It is argued, however, that the tendency to distinguish between and separate the so-called ‘scientic’ and ‘engineering’ challenges and approaches in crop modelling has constrained the maturation of modelling. It is considered that effective crop modelling must combine a scientic approach to enhance understanding with an application orientation to retain a focus on prediction and problem solving. Greater use of crop simulation models has also been suggested to increase the efciency of different trials. While simulation models successfully capture the temporal variation, they use a lumped parameter approach that assumes spatial variability of the soils, crops or climate.
