Agronomy Journal 93:650 (2001)
© 2001 American Society of Agronomy
MODELING
Introduction to Crop Modeling Papers from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union
John M. Baker
USDA-ARS and Dep. of Soil, Water, and Climate, Univ. of Minnesota, 439 Borlaug Hall, 1991 Upper Buford Circle, St. Paul, MN 55108
Corresponding author (jbaker{at}soils.umn.edu)
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INTRODUCTION
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 TOP
 INTRODUCTION
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At the 1994 ASA–CSSA–SSSA annual meetings in Seattle, WA, ASA Division A-3 sponsored a symposium entitled, "Use and Abuse of Crop Simulation Models." The four speakers (Tom Sinclair, Ken Boote, John Passioura, and John Monteith) presented such an entertaining and provocative picture of the state of the science that there were a number of suggestions afterwards for a written product. Accordingly, the editorial board of Agronomy Journal was approached and agreed to publish a set of papers, provided that they were subject to full peer review. Those papers appeared in print in 1996 (Agron. J. 88:689–716) and in turn elicited considerable interest among scientists in eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union where crop simulation modeling had a long parallel history, which was not well known elsewhere in the world due to political constraints on the professional interaction that most of us take for granted. Dr. Vitalij Denisov, of Klaipeda University in Lithuania, proposed a second set of papers to provide a view of the philosophy and status of crop modeling in these countries. The editorial board of Agronomy Journal agreed to the concept, subject to peer review, and the resulting papers are presented here. They are not intended to provide a comprehensive picture, but rather a snapshot of some of the crop modeling efforts undertaken in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as well as a vision of the potential role of such research in the future.
