The original development of DSSAT was funded through a grant provided to the University of Hawaii and the University of Puerto Rice by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). This grant supported the International Benchmark Sites Network for Agrotechnology Transfer Project (IBSNAT);the outcomes of the IBSNAT Project was the DSSAT crop modeling ecosystem and a network of crop model developers and crop model users. Current support for DSSAT is through a core group of developers who are associated with the University of Florida and International Fertilizer Development Center, as well as a larger group of crop model and tool developers who mainly participate in the DSSAT biennial Development Sprint.

A DSSAT Listserv has been establishment to disseminate information on DSSAT, crop modeling, decision support systems, and related material such as vacant positions, workshops, and conferences. We try not to “spam” DSSAT modelers with too much information; therefore the list is carefully monitored. Currently there are over 19,800 unique e-mail addresses associated with the DSSAT Listserv.

You can contact the DSSAT development team directly by completing the information found under “Contact Us.” Normally you will receive a reply between 24 and 72 hrs, depending on the availability of the core development team. Given that this is a volunteer effort, we hope that you use this feature only for asking intelligent questions and queries.

A list of frequently asked questions is available to address the more common issues and questions that have been asked by the DSSAT modeling community.

The ultimate goal of the DSSAT development team is to make sure that accurate crop simulation models are available for a wide range of annual crops, as well as associated tools and utilities for data entry and crop model applications for risk management for food security and environmental sustainability.