Could a crop model be useful for improving sunflower crop management?

Abstract

In France, there is a need for improved sunflower crop management, in order to meet the greater requirement for oil by increasing both seed yields and the area of this crop. The objective of this article is to review the main characteristics of sunflower crop management in France and in other countries, in order to emphasize the need for improvement, and to evaluate if the recent advances in crop modelling could help to find solutions. In France, a better adaptation of crop management to water availability is needed, as well as a more efficient control of diseases without applying more fungicides. The results of these objectives would also trigger major improvements in other countries, but there is also a need to control insects and to adapt crop management to the goals of oil quality. The main sunflower crop models are reviewed in this article, with an emphasis on the most recent ones. Their ability to contribute to improving sunflower crop management, although they do not take into account diseases and insects, is discussed. Confidence in the decisions based on simulations, and the way to evaluate it, is also examined.