Workshop purpose:
To provide training to scientists and technical advisors working with the oil palm industry in how to operate the APSIM Oil Palm Model, which is designed to simulate crop production, water balance,
soil organic matter and greenhouse gas emissions.
This training course will provide:
In addition, there will be opportunity to discuss future use of the model and to assemble the data needed to use it.
APSIM‐Oil Palm has been developed as part of the research project ‘Sustainable management of soil and water resources for oil palm production systems in Papua New Guinea (SMCN‐2009‐013)’, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. It became available as part of APSIM 7.6 in March 2014.
For more information about APSIM, see here
The workshop is organised under the auspices of PalmINet www.palminet.com and the International Conference on Oil Palm and the Environment (ICOPE) www.icope‐series.com, and is sponsored by ICOPE and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
Proposed program:
The basic format for the three‐day workshop will be as follows:
Day 1 (8:30 am ‐ 5:30 pm) ‐ APSIM
History of APSIM, the model development framework, the APSIM initiative and the APSIM Community Source Framework
How to use the APSIM User Interface including building simulations, running simulations and graphing output.
Weather and Soil Data Requirements
The APSIM soil models for simulating soil water, carbon and nitrogen balances
Day 2 (8:30 am ‐ 5:30 pm) ‐ Oil Palm modelling within APSIM
A description of the Oil Palm and Understory models
Data requirements
Sample simulations for 3 regions across Papua New Guinea
Investigation of output for crop, water balance, soil organic matter and greenhouse gases
Day 3 (8:30 am ? 4:00 pm) ? Maximising utility of APSIM in the future
Availability of required data for areas of interest
Possible collaborative projects to compile data, test model etc.
Opportunity to practice with given or own data sets.
Requirements for participants
Participants must have:
Tertiary training in agriculture/biology and an understanding of the cycling of water and elements (carbon and nitrogen in particular) in the soil‐plant‐atmosphere system.
Familiarity Microsoft Windows (XP, Windows7, Windows8)
A laptop with minimum of 2GB RAM and Core i3 processor or better and Windows operating system.
If you would like to model your system and have weather, soil or crop data sets that may be suitable, please contact Neil Huth or Paul Nelson before‐hand to discuss the requirements. You are also welcome to visit Neil in Toowoomba, Australia, before the workshop if you wish.
Cost:
A registration fee of USD100 will be charged for the workshop.
Contacts
Dr Paul Nelson
paul.nelson@jcu.edu.au
Tel. +61 7 4232 1375
Skype. pauln.nelson
Dr Neil Huth
Neil.huth@csiro.au
Tel. +61 7 4688 1421
Participants will be scientists and technical advisors working in the oil palm industry. The trainer will be Dr Neil Huth, CSIRO, principal developer of the APSIM Oil Palm module His contact details are below. If you are interested in participating but haven’t yet contacted Paul Nelson (contact details also below), please do so as soon as possible. Numbers will be restricted to a maximum of 20, with places allocated on a first‐come first‐served basis.
List of participants:
1. Dr Cecile Bessou (CIRAD, France)
2. Mr Jean Ollivier (CIRAD, France)
3. Mr Lenaic Pardon (CIRAD/AgroParisTech, France)
4. Dr Neil Huth (CSIRO, Australia)
5. Dr Mike Webb (CSIRO, Australia)
6. Mr Tony Webster (CSIRO, Australia)
7. Ms Ni’matul Khasanah (ICRAF/Wageningen Uni, Indonesia/The Netherlands)
8. Ms Nuzul Hijri Darlan (IOPRI, Indonesia)
9. Mr Eko Novandy Ginting (IOPRI, Indonesia)
10. Mr Eka Listia (IOPRI, Indonesia)
11. Mr M. Arif Yusuf (IOPRI, Indonesia)
12. Dr Paul Nelson (James Cook University, Australia)
13. Dr Jose Alvaro Cristancho (Mejisulfatos, Colombia)
14. Mr Andres Molina (Mejisulfatos, Colombia)
15. Mr Edi Iswanto Wiloso (PPK/Leiden Uni, Indonesia/The Netherlands)
16. Dr Jean-Pierre Caliman (Smartri, Indonesia)
17. Mr Medi Darminto (Smartri, Indonesia)
18. Mr Rudi Harto (Smartri, Indonesia)
19. Mr Hartono (Smartri, Indonesia)
20. Mr Pujianto (Smartri, Indonesia)
21. Mr Suhardi (Smartri, Indonesia)
22. Mr Edison Sihombing (Socfindo, Indonesia)
23. Mr Erwanda Surya (Socfindo, Indonesia)
24. Ms Lotte Woittiez (Wageningen University, The Netherlands)
25. Dr Nurhussen (Golden Veroleum, Liberia)
Learn more about our past seminars
Sustainable management of soils under oil palm plantings (2013)