Dear Luis Alvarez,

We are pleased to see that you are considering using CANEGRO. As with
other crops in DSSAT, CANEGRO will require the basic weather and soil
information as described in the DSSAT manual. There are also three key
references specifically describing validation work done on CANEGRO
(unfortunately two of them are currently in press):

Inman-Bamber, N.G., 1991, A growth model for sugar-cane based on a
simple carbon balance and the CERES-Maize water balance., S. Afr. J.
Plant Soil 8(2): p93-99.

Singels, A., Bezuidenhout, C.N., 2002, A new method of simulating dry
mater partitioning in the CANEGRO sugarcane model., Field Crops Res., in
press.

Kiker, G.A., Inman-Bamber, N.G., Hoogenboom, G., McGlinchey, M.M.,
2002. CANEGRO: a model of growth and sucrose yield of sugarcane. Agric.
Syst., in press.

We were recently involved with the MSIRI in validating CANEGRO for
Mauritius.  This would be an excellent example for you to follow. You
can contact Fareeda Cheeroo Nayamuth <[log in to unmask]> for
more information. I am sure she would not mind telling you what her data
set consisted of.

You could divide CANEGRO validation into two categories, (1) canopy
validation and (2) biomass validation.  Under the canopy you should
ideally measure leaf emergence and senescence, leaf area, stalk
population, and light interception. Under biomass it will be neccesary
to at least measure above ground biomass, millable stalk biomass and
sucrose mass. You could also measure leaf and sheath mass, trash mass
and the meristem. In both categories sequential measurements are needed
through the duration of the trials.

With the help of Greg Kiker and Gerrit Hoogenboom we are planning to
implement the new biomass partitioning module (Singels & Bezuidenhout
2002) into DSSAT CANEGRO. The new version is more mechanistic and has
proved to be more accurate, especially in the simulation of sucrose.  We
are currently investigating the formation of a Canegro consortium to
support collaboration and DSSAT code maintenance.  If you are interested
in this effort then we would appreciate your vote of support at this
stage. We will post any new developments on the DSSAT list server.

We hope this information is of value to you.

Kind regards,

Carel Bezuidenhout & Abraham Singels
SASEX
Mount Edgecombe
South Africa




>>> luis alvarez <[log in to unmask]> 05 September 2002 10:33:44
>>>
Dear Gerrit:
We are trying to validate Canegro for out tropical farm conditions in
order
to use it with a GIS to evaluate sugar cane production. Is there any
minimum
data set for sugar cane?, how could we get it or some literature that
can
help our field measurements?
Sincerely yours:
Luis E. Alvarez L.
Universidad Ezequiel Zamora. UNELLEZ
Guanare. Estado Portuguesa. Venezuela.

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