The

Decision Support System A decision support system (DSS) is an information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations and planning levels of an organization (usually mid and higher management) and h ...

for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) is a set of computer programs for simulating agricultural crop growth. It has been used in over 100 countries by

agronomists An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the U ...

for evaluating farming methods. One application has been assessing the possible impacts on agriculture of climate change and testing adaptation methods. DSSAT is built with a modular approach, with different options available to represent such processes as

evapotranspiration Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combined processes by which water moves from the earth’s surface into the atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation (movement of water to the air directly from soil, canopies, and water bodies) and transpi ...

and soil organic matter accumulation, which facilitates testing different representations of processes important in crop growth. The functionality of DSSAT has also been extended through interfaces with other software such as

GIS A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing Geographic data and information, geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with Geographic information system software, sof ...

. DSSAT typically requires input parameters related to soil condition, weather, any management practices such as fertilizer use and irrigation, and characteristics of the crop variety being grown. Many common crops have their characteristics already implemented as DSSAT modules. DSSAT grew out of the International Benchmark Sites Network for Agrotechnological Transfer (IBSNAT) in the 1980s, with the first official release in 1989. Version 4, released in 2003, introduced a more modular structure and added tools for agricultural economic analysis and risk assessment. Development has continued in affiliation with the International Consortium for Agricultural Systems Applications (ICASA).

Notes

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External links

DSSAT website
Agronomy Environmental science software