This is in response to Carlos P. Caldeira's message of 21 Feb. The information contained in the DSSAT files is organized well enough = that it would not require great effort to transfer it to a formal = relational database. To my mind, though, the real challenge for someone = interested in databases for applications in agriculture, is to develop = of a data model that is complete enough to capture all information that = relates to agronomic experiments. The DSSAT file system captures the = summary information that is most relevant to modelers, but it fails to = capture the rest. An ideal database would allow storage of the entire experiment protocol = (goal, objectives, design, implementation, methods of measurement and = instrumentation) and all raw data. In other words, it should be = possible to enter - in a structured manner! - into the database all = information that traditionally is entered into the experiment logbook. If anybody has plans to work in this area, or has made some progress = already, I would be interested to hear about it. Regards, Frits van Evert University of Minnesota Dept. Soil, Water and Climate St. Paul, MN 55108, USA