Since 2010, the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) community of experts has been advancing methods for improving predictions on the future performance of agricultural and food systems. AgMIP has advanced widely used tools and protocols for harmonized analyses of agricultural systems using the best available models. It has also advanced new methods to integrate stakeholder-informed scenarios into global and regional assessments of current and future agriculture and food systems outlooks given changing climate and other stresses. Stakeholders and Researchers regularly use the AgMIP tools, methods, and projections to advance their work.
The name AgMIP emphasizes the importance of inter- comparison for learning about models and for improving their components. Initial studies on wheat, corn, and rice systems, as well as economics have resulted in multiple-author, high-impact papers. This work is now motivating research that links agriculture and land use, nutrition, shocks, and many other related topics, with active participation of about 1,000 agricultural modelers and stakeholders worldwide.
The AgMIP Coordination Unit anticipates, convenes, documents, monitors, and shares a wide range of processes and results. It supports the advancement of Research Themes set by AgMIP’s Steering Council; and facilitates progress and linkages enabled by the Executive Committee. It also convenes Research and Region Activity Leaders through regular Leaders Fora for updates, results sharing, and brainstorming. Overall, the Coordination Unit works to ensure:
Regular global workshops that are well structured and truly objective and agnostic relative to any particular model, where scientists share latest results with stakeholders.
Support to Steering, Executive, and Activity functions, with special attention to model improvements and processes for establishing high quality datasets and tools that render data and models interoperable, available, accessible, and useable.
Inclusive leadership at all levels that is supported and open to broad contributions.
Principles that emphasize scientific rigor and open access.
Representation of the worldwide community and its work on the AgMIP website (www.agmip.org)
- Global-scale linked climate-crop-economic model ensembles demonstrate vulnerability of global food systems to climate change and other factors.
- Crop Model Intercomparisons in major growing regionsacross the globe, coupled with eld and satellite data, enablebreakthroughs in crop model development for projecting future yields and key nutrients of major crops.
- The creation and provision of translators, data commons, and visualization tools contribute to global public goods that foster innovations such as ‘smart farms’ – growers that use ‘bigdata’, the internet of things, and arti cial intelligence to improveagricultural outcomes.
- New AgMIP multi-model methods explore and quantify the ability of technologies and strategies to enable farming systems to adapt to climate change. They result in a portfolio of options to support investments in climate-smart agriculture. Stakeholders in Zimbabwe, Senegal, Pakistan, and India found the method uniquely useful for assessing options, leading to shifts in planning.
- An interactive decision support tool, the AgMIP Impacts Explorer, visualizes the multi-model and scenario-basedresearch and provides access to key ndings and datafor users from general/education, policy/decision, and technical experts.
- A new cadre of modeling and stakeholder engagement experts is now in place across 15 countries of South Asia and Sub-Sa- haran Africa. These scientists are using the tools for research in their organizations and nations.
- Gridded global crop models detail shifts in availability and nutrient value of crops, as well as vulnerability of global food systems to climate shocks.
- Global economic models establish the impacts of climatechange and mitigation e orts on agricultural production,consumption, prices, trade, and land use change.
- Quantification of estimated impact uncertainty supportspolicy decisions on climate change with protocols for model-ensemble applications for impact assessments.Identi cation of global hot-spots for climate change impactand support of national and international research agendas on adaptation research.
- A well-established global research network is responding to regional and global challenges that are beyond individual institutional and country capacity to solve. These arise from climate change, food security issues, and targets for development goals from national and UN organizations.