Modelling climate change impacts on crop production for food security: introduction

Process-based crop models that synthesise the latest scientific understanding of bio-physical processes are currently the primary scientific tools available to assess potential impacts of climate change on crop production. Important obstacles are still present, however, and must be overcome for improving crop modelling application in integrated assessments of risk, of sustainability and of crop-production resilience in the face of climate change (e.g. uncertainty analysis, model integration, etc.). The research networks MACSUR and AGMIP organised the CropM International Symposium and Workshop in Oslo, on 10-12 February 2014, and present this CR Special, discussing the state-of-the-art—as well as future perspectives—of crop modelling applications in climate change risk assessment, including the challenges of integrated assessments for the agricultural sector.