DSSAT v4.8.5

Latest Version: 4.8.5 (December 2024) | Free of charge!

DSSAT v4.8.5 is now available:

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DSSAT International Training 2025

May 19-24, 2025. University of Georgia, Griffin.

22nd DSSAT Development Sprint

Hybrid Meeting, UF, Gainesville | January 6-10

CRAFT: A New Spatial Yield Forecasting Tool

The CCAFS Regional Agricultural Forecasting Toolbox (CRAFT) is a software platform designed for yield forecasting at 5 or 30 arc-minutes spatial resolutions using an ensemble modeling approach. Twenty-three important food and feed crops have been implemented using the DSSAT Cropping System Model as the main crop model engine.

CRAFT is an initiative of CCAFS and was developed in partnership with the University of Florida. It has been successfully applied to forecast the in-season yield of wheat and rice cropping systems in Nepal and Bangladesh.  It has also been evaluated for yield forecasting and climate change applications in West Africa in collaboration with the WASCAL Project, Agrhymet, and the CASCAID Project of ICRISAT.

Read More about CRAFT Download CRAFT v4.0

DSSAT Downloads

Enhancing crop model parameter estimation using the GLUE method and parallel computing

Introducing a new parallel computing system for calibrating genetic parameters within the crop modules of the Cropping System Model (CSM) of DSSAT The Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation Parallelized (GLUEP)

21st DSSAT Development Sprint

Hybrid Meeting, IFDC, Muscle Schoals | June 10-14

DSSAT International Training 2024

May 20-25, 2024. University of Georgia, Griffin.

Crop Modeling and Climate Change Postgraduate Course

Training the Next Generation of Crop Modelers for Crop Model Development and Improvement |

March 10-15, 2024

 

20th DSSAT Development Sprint

Hybrid Meeting, University of Florida, Gainesville | January 8-12, 2024

14th AMEI Development Sprint

February 19-23, 2024, the DSSAT Team from the University of Florida (UF) participated in the 14th AMEI Development Sprint hosted by the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) located in Müncheberg, Germany.

DSSAT Open Forum during the 2024 ASA meetings

DSSAT Open Forum Session during the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Agronomy-Crop Science Society of America-Soil Science Society of America

Bilateral Project Between Ankara University and the University of Florida on Capacity Building

Ankara University, in collaboration with the University of Florida, developed a project entitled “Capacity Building on the Dissemination of the Use of Agro-technological Decision Support Systems in Agriculture.” The project has been funded by the US Embassy in Türkiye under the auspices of a US-Türkiye bilateral Program.

18th DSSAT Development Sprint

Hybrid Meeting, University of Florida, Gainesville | January 17-20, 2023

Improvement and Application of Agroecosystem Models: The DSSAT experience

Presented by Gerrit Hoogenboom during the Symposium – “Improvement and Application of Crop Growth and Agroecosystem Models for Knowledge Advancement and Sustainable Development” as part of the 2021 ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Access the presentation here

The DSSAT crop modeling ecosystem

The DSSAT crop modeling ecosystem is one of the oldest and most widely used crop modeling platforms across the world. The success of DSSAT is based on the inclusiveness and participatory approach that has been used since the original development of the CERES and CROPGRO family of models and the emphasis on sharing data and model code. DSSAT is not just a software program, but an ecosystem of:

• Crop model users;
• Crop model trainers;
• Crop model developers;
• Models for the most important food, feed, fiber, and fuel crops;
• Tools and utilities for data preparation;
• Minimum data for model calibration and evaluation; and
• Application programs for assessing real-world problems.

Download the chapter in PDF More info/buy the book

Advances in crop modelling for a sustainable agriculture

This collection summarises key advances in crop modelling, with a focus on developing the next generation of crop and whole-farm models to improve decision making and support for farmers.
Chapters in Part 1 review advances in modelling individual components of agricultural systems, such as plant responses to environmental conditions, crop growth stage prediction, nutrient and water cycling as well as pest/disease dynamics. Building on topics previously discussed in Part 1, Part 2 addresses the challenges of combining modular sub-systems into whole farm system, landscape and regional models. Chapters cover topics such as integration of rotations and livestock, as well as landscape models such as agroecological zone (AEZ) models. Chapters also review the performance of specific models such as APSIM and DSSAT and the challenges of developing decision support systems (DSS) linked with such models. The final part of the book reviews wider issues in improving model reliability such as data sharing and the supply of real-time data, as well as crop model inter-comparison.

Read More… Watch the informative video Buy the bookDownload brochure

Cultivating Food Security in Africa

ICASA Data Standards Version 2.0

icasa_v2_paper

Researchers increasingly seek to integrate results from multiple experiments. The ICASA V2.0 standards allow flexible description of field experiments. Major categories of data are management, soil, weather and crop responses. The standards may be implemented in diverse digital formats. Planned improvements emphasize data quality and appropriate usage.

Access at ScienceDirect
Download in PDF

 

What is DSSAT?

Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) is a windows-based software application program that comprises dynamic crop growth simulation models for over 45 crops. DSSAT is supported by a range of utilities and apps for weather, soil, genetic, crop management, and observational experimental data, and includes example data sets for all crop models. The crop simulation models simulate growth, development and yield as a function of the soil-plant-atmosphere dynamics. DSSAT has been applied to address many real-world problems and issues ranging from genetic modeling to on-farm and precision management, regional assessments of the impact of climate variability and climate change, economic and environmental sustainability, and food and nutrition security. DSSAT has been used for more than 30 years by researchers, educators, consultants, extension agents, growers, private industry, policy and decision makers, and many others in over 198 countries worldwide.  Learn more…

22
May

Reproducibility of Field Research and Simulation Studies

By • May 22, 2025 • Data, Publications, Showcase • Comments Off on Reproducibility of Field Research and Simulation Studies

There are growing concerns over erosion of the public’s trust in scientific research, which ultimately affects whether research truly benefits society. In agriculture, especially in topics related to sustainable production, a recurring theme is how well research can be confirmed by other researchers. This is largely an issue of ensuring that all stages of research […]

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16
May

[Q] How do you run DSSAT on Mac OS and Linux?

By • May 16, 2025 • FAQs • Leave a comment

Unfortunately, for MacOS/Linux users there is no installation available for these platforms yet. DSSAT is a Windows packaged software. In this case, you will have to use a virtual machine that can run Windows on top of your operational system. Please see below the video tutorial where you can go around this limitation using Linux […]

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04
May

Release of CRAFT Version 4.0

By • May 4, 2025 • Releases, Tools • Comments Off on Release of CRAFT Version 4.0

What’s new in the CRAFT Version 4.0? The latest version of CRAFT V4.0 adds fast and easy installation of the software and MySQL server, creating a database and populating it with all reference tables. CRAFT V4.0 uses MySQL Server 8.0, updated 64-bit Windows applications,  MS .NET framework 4.8 libraries, and schema generation using R libraries. […]

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01
Mar

DSSAT 2025 – Rural Development Administration Training Program on the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer

By • March 1, 2025 • News & Event, Past Workshops, Workshops • Comments Off on DSSAT 2025 – Rural Development Administration Training Program on the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer

An introductory training program on DSSAT was held from February 24 through February 28, 2025 at the Rural Human Resource Development Center of the Rural Development Center in Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do, Republic of Korea. The workshop was attended by 39 participants, representing the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Vegetable Research Division; Jeonbuk National University, […]

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27
Feb

New Directions in Data Management

By • February 27, 2025 • Blog, Data, Tools • Comments Off on New Directions in Data Management

The DSSAT community has long emphasized the importance of relating model evaluations and applications to real world data. In recent years, we have welcomed interest in making datasets openly accessible and compliant with the FAIR principles whereby data are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/). To this end, we have new initiatives to strengthen the […]

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15
Jan

22nd Hybrid DSSAT Development Sprint at the University of Florida

By • January 15, 2025 • News & Event • Comments Off on 22nd Hybrid DSSAT Development Sprint at the University of Florida

The 22nd DSSAT Development Sprint, held from January 6–10, 2025, at the University of Florida, was a vibrant hub for agricultural modeling innovation. Hosted by the Global Food Systems Institute and the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, this hybrid event gathered an international array of researchers, developers, and industry experts in Gainesville, Florida, and […]

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20
Dec

Introducing the new DSSAT Version 4.8.5

By • December 20, 2024 • News & Event, Releases • Comments Off on Introducing the new DSSAT Version 4.8.5

The DSSAT model development team has been working hard to enhance the Cropping System Model (CSM) and the DSSAT suite of tools, utilities, and applications. After a year of remarkable progress and bi-annual Development Sprints, we are thrilled to announce the latest advancements. Major Updates in DSSAT Version 4.8.5: The December 2024 release introduces new tools, […]

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