Improving crop pest/disease modeling

Dissemination of crop pests and diseases occurs through both natural and anthropogenic processes, facilitated by the increasing interconnectedness of the global food chain. Food security depends on our ability to manage crop pests and diseases effectively. This chapter offers a brief overview of approaches to model coupling in order to better predict and manage crop pests and diseases. The chapter explains the PEST subroutine in the CROPGRO family of models, and shows how a strategy of keeping the crop model separate from disease/pest models, and coupling through Message Passing Interface (MPI) functionality, can be effective. It presents a proof of concept in order to demonstrate the communication approach for model coupling that examines the integrations performed in crop and pest/disease simulation models. Finally, the chapter looks ahead to future research trends in this area.