International Year of Millets

Submissions Open:1 December 2022

Submission Deadline: 30 April 2023

We are seeking submissions for a special section in Crop Science to commemorate the 2023 United Nations-designated International Year of Millets. Millets are among the first plants to be domesticated, have a high nutritional content, and require little water. They are a staple food for millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. With this special issue, we wish to highlight the production, cultivation, and benefits of millets as a solution to climate change and global food security challenges.

Computational Design of Changing Cropping Systems

Submissions Open: 1 January 2023

Full Submission Deadline: 30 June 2023

Cropping systems are undergoing end-to-end redesign in response to global change. With the rise of the metaverse, digital twins, and artificial intelligence approaches to addressing complex problems in food and agriculture, we are on the cusp of a world where computing can direct the design of sustainable cropping systems. However, the intellectual basis to support the computer-driven design of cropping systems lie across multiple, disconnected disciplines. As a result, work remains fragmented even though each relies on a common pool of computing techniques. This special issue will draw together scholars from agriculture, landscape ecology, food science, regional planning, geography, and computer science to show the breadth and depth of work happening in cropping system design to illustrate the commonalities across computing methods and identify open challenges in computing required for the emergence of computer-designed sustainable cropping systems.

We expect contributions that document a significant scientific advance in crop production or improvement using knowledge-guided machine learning, agent-based modeling, spatial optimization, trust in artificial intelligence systems, as well as case studies specific to different scales of agricultural systems from individual cultivars to landscapes. Contributions may provide novel insights into why some crop production designs evolved (e.g., specific crop rotations, spatial configurations, or intercropping), or provide examples of computer-driven design in practice with decision-makers and stakeholders.

This collection of papers will guide future developments in automated cropping system design technology that support high fidelity models of plant-environment systems at multiple scales and development of new crop production and crop improvement systems. These technologies are anticipated to be the basis of trillions of dollars in economic activity over the next two decades. This will guide both modeling and empirical exploration of systems in crop science.

Michael Kantar, University of Hawaii, USA

Diane Wang, Purdue University, USA

Bryan Runck, University of Minnesota, USA

Patrick Ewing, USDA, USA