Dear colleagues:

I sent already the Spanish versions. The English ones will go tomorrow.

I suppose that you all received the message from my dear friend María Elena Ruiz. We know each other from the same Faculty and University (Science and Havana) but had lost touch during years. We are both very glad to join efforts now.

So now you may have a better view of modeling works and applications here. And to appreciate the old law of dialectics related to the union and fight of the opposites (general / particular, deduction / induction, theoretical / experimental, climate / soil and such). She had the joy of meeting Prof. James Jones and Dr. Fred Royce (I missed that one) but I had the pleasure of working with Joel B. Smith and Dr. Michael Hulme
We both attack the same problem from different ends of the rope, but we meet in the middle. That is, in working to help produce more food for our people.

I am attaching no references as there are too many already in the papers themselves. But I will add that we also obtained two Cuban Academy of Science awards in January 2000 (Climate Change Impact Assessment and Adaptation Measures in Cuba) and January 2003 (Causes and Forecasting of Droughts in Cuba). Her award is younger, and well deserved, as she is younger and much prettier than me. Please forget my usual "eastern cuban" sense of humour, I promise not to use it very often.

Sincerely yours,

Roger E. Rivero Vega

* * * * *
In relation to the message posted by the colleage Roger E. Rivero Vega about
the first applications of modeling in Agriculture in Cuba I would like to
inform about the following applications:

Ruiz, Maria. E.  SWACROP model for simulating water use and yields in potato
crop under Ferralsols. PhD Thesis, 1998 (in spanish).

López, Teresa. 2002. Characterizing water movement in irrigated soils at the
south of Havana: methodological contribution for determining soil water
balance. PhD Thesis (models MACRO and STICK were used) (in spanish)

López, Teresa, Cid, G., González, F., Dueñas, G., Lafontaine, H. Sierra, J.
Comparing two simulation models to determine water transferences in a
Ferralsol. Ciencias Técnicas Agropecuarias 11(1): 83-89, 2002. (in spanish)

Medina, H. Sensibility analysis of SWAP model for water management in sugar
cane crop. Master Thesis. 1998.(in spanish)

Ruiz, María E. Utset, A., Medina, H. Ruiz, J. Ferrer, Mayra, del Valle,
Alicia, García, J. Fleitas, Eva. A simple SWAP model version for estimating
sugar cane yields under rainfed conditions. In "Soils and Soil Physics in
Continental Environment. Allied Publishers, Chennai. 2003.

Utset, A., Ruiz, M:E.,Medina, H., del Valle, A. y Garea E. A modeling-GIS
approach for estimating sugar-cane yields in some Cuban soils. Ciencias
Técnicas Agropecuarias 11(1):33-45, 2002.

Utset, A., Ruiz, María E., García, J., Feddes, R.A. A SWACROP-based potato
root water-uptake function as determined under tropical conditions. Potato
Research 43:19-29, 2000.

Ruiz, María, Utset, A., Roque, R., Bernal, P. Simulación del uso del agua y
el rendimiento de la patata en un Ferralsol. Investigación Agraria. Serie
Producción y Protección de Vegetales (España). 11(3), 1996.

Ruiz, Maria E., Utset, A. Models for predicting Water Use and Crop Yields. A
Cuban experience. IN Invited Presentations College on Soil Physics 2003. The
Abdus Salam Internacional Centre for Theoretical Physics. Editros D.M
Gabriels, G. Ghirardi, D.R. Nielsen, I.Pla Sentis, E.L. Skidmore. 18. ISBN
92-95003-26-8, pp 321-328, 2004.

In adition three international project funding by IAI were executed in
relation with this subject:

Estimation of ENSO effects on sugar cane yields in several Latin-American
countries"  Cuba, México y Venezuela (Project IAI/41/1997)Utset, A.

Predicting ENSO effects on sugar cane yields using weather generators and
mechanistics crop models (Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, project PARA 001) Ruiz,
M.E.

Modeling soil water atmosphere system (SPG 020, VI Latin American School of
Soil Physics in Cuba, December 2002) Ruiz, M.E.

Now one co-worker is making his PhD adding PEST  code for the inverse
estimation of the input parameters of model SWAP.

During one Conference hold at the National Institute of Agricultural Science
(INCA) in 2000, took place the visit of Prof. James Jones and Dr. Fred Royce
that could see part of the work cited.

Finally I can say that all the work made in collaboration with  other two
institutions (Research Institute in Irrigation and drainage and Research
Institute in Sugar Cane ) in the subject, deserved one of the Cuban Academic
of Science award in January of 2005

A long message but I think that the information was important in orther to
put clear that in Cuba there is a work about crop modeling that began in
1996.

Best regards


Dra. María Elena Ruiz
Grupo de Investigaciones Agrofísicas
Universidad Agraria de la Habana
Apartado Postal 18, San Jose de las Lajas
Habana.
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