Cropping Systems Modeling Under Changing Climate

Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed’s research focuses on the application of IoT in agriculture and impact of climate change on crop ecology, crop physiology, cropping system and rain-fed ecosystem management. He has specialization in the field of environmental sciences, precision agriculture, agro-ecosystem modeling, climate change and climate variability with teaching and research experience. He has impact factor of greater than 500 with H-Index of more than 40 and published 05 books and his name have been mentioned (Mendeley Data) in top 2% renowned researcher in the world 2022. Dr Ahmed has research experience from Sydney University, Australia, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden and APCC South Korea where he worked on the application of process based modeling and remote sensing. Dr Ahmed was part of the Regional Approaches for Climate Change (REACCH) project in the USA and was part of Washington State University where he developed multi-model ensemble approaches to minimize the uncertainties in modeling. He is a Project co-leader in the Model Calibration Group of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AGMIP) Wheat, Maize Evapotranspiration, and CO2.

Prof. Dr. Sajjad Hussain is working as a Professor of Horticulture in the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences & Technology at Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan. He earned his Ph.D. in 2011 at the University of Corsica Pascale Paoli, France. Apart from teaching various graduate and postgraduate horticultural courses, his primary areas of research are plant physiology under abiotic stresses, management of nutrient uptake of horticultural crops, and plant adaptation under climate uncertainty. The overall aim of his research is to understand the underlining mechanisms for the management of abiotic stresses (salt, drought, temperature, waterlogging, etc.) by combining physiological, eco-physiological, molecular, and biogeochemical approaches. He has been working in the field of horticulture for the last 15 years. He has published over 70 peer reviewed publications, one edited Book, over 40 book chapters, and several conference papers. He has successfully supervised three Ph.D. students and 25 M.Phil. students. He has been involved as principal and coprincipal investigator in various research grants worth around 25 million PKR from different funding agencies. He is also actively working as a reviewer for different Impact factor journals.

Dr. Shakeel Ahmad is a Professor of Agronomy at Institute of Agronomy (IOA), Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan. In 2006, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Later, he completed his postdoctoral research from the University of Georgia, USA. He joined as a Lecturer in the Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, in October 2002. He was promoted to Professor in 2016. He has been devoting himself in teaching and researching the field of arable crops, especially focused on crop modeling, climate change impact assessment, and adaptation strategies. He has published over 200 articles and 150 book chapters. Furthermore, he has published six books [(1) Cotton Production and Uses; (2) Modern Techniques of Rice Crop Production; (3) Citrus Production: Technological Advancements and Adaptation to Climate Change; (4) Disaster Risk Reduction in Agriculture; (5) Biotechnology and Omics Approaches for Bioenergy Crops; and (6) Principles of Field Crop Production] . His publications received over 7500 citations with an h-index of 50 (according to Scopus). He is Editor and Reviewer of many peer-reviewed international journals. He is also an Active and Life Member of professional societies like Pakistan Society of Agronomy and Pakistan Botanical Society. He has attended and presented papers and posters in national and international conferences in different countries.

Dr. Ghulam Abbas is working as an Agriculture Officer in `the Punjab Agriculture Department. He holds a Ph.D. in Agronomy from Bahauddin Zakariya University. His areas of interest encompass agronomy, climate change and agro-meteorology, crop growth modeling, remote sensing, and Geographic Information System (GIS). He has expertise in cropping system models “Decision Support System for Agro-technology Transfer (DSSAT) and The Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM).” His research experience is more than 5 years in different research projects. He has over 50 publications in national and international peer reviewed journals and books over his areas of expertise. Additionally, he serves as a reviewer for numerous esteemed national and international journals.

Dr. Gerrit Hoogenboom is a Preeminent Scholar in the Global Food Systems Institute and Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Florida, USA. Prior to his appointment at the University of Florida he was Professor of Biological Systems Engineering and Director of the AgWeatherNet Program at Washington State University, USA, specializing in providing near real-time weather information for decision support by growers and producers. Professor Hoogenboom has over 30 years of experience in the development of crop simulation models and decision support systems. Applications range from freeze forecasting to climate variability and climate change, water resources management, biofuels, economic and environmental sustainability, and food and nutrition security. He currently coordinates the development of the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer, one of the most widely used crop modeling systems across the world. He frequently organizes and facilitates international training workshops on crop modeling and decision support systems. He has published over 500 scientific papers in refereed journals as well as numerous book chapters and proceedings. Since 2019, he is the Editor-in-Chief for The Journal of Agricultural Science (Cambridge). In 2022, he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.