Dear Modellers:
During three rice crop seasons (1997 and 2000 rainy seasons and 2001 dry season) I have collected soil, weather, cultivar and management data in order to calibrate, evaluate or validate? CERES-rice.
I have used the information of 4 tryals in 2 fields (rice farms) to calibrate, and used these information for model validation.
I know that in the iterative process I only calibrate the model. With information of other places and years I could validate it.
I would like to have your and Dr. K.J. Boote (I donīt have his e-mail) opinion about this problem. Should I use the same information to calibrate and validate or not?. Perhaps this process could take many years, so where are the advantages of modelling?. I know that I can use the validated model in many important features, but it is still expensive in time and money, and in our tropical environment events goes very fast.
Thanks for your advise.
Sincerely yours:
Luis E. Alvarez Larrauri
Universidad Ezequiel Zamora. UNELLEZ.
Guanare. Estado Portuguesa. Venezuela.