Goals and Objectives

Goal

Advance insect and disease modeling for use in regional and global assessments of crop production, climate change and food security through initiation of model intercomparison and improvement teams.

Objectives

1. Summarize recent progress on modeling pests and diseases and approaches for estimating changes in pests and diseases and their effects on crop yields and economic impacts
2. Develop teams and strategies for intercomparing insect and disease models and approaches for their use in assessing crop production and economic impacts at regional to global scales and adaptation
3. Identify opportunities for these teams to obtain support
4. Develop plans for publishing a special issue on modeling pests and diseases in a high-impact peer-reviewed journal and identify lead authors for this effort