What does STICS do?

Stics is a mechanistic model for simulating soil-plant-atmosphere functioning at plot level. It simulates crop growth on a daily basis, as well as water, carbon and nitrogen (and soon phosphorus!) balances, by integrating the effect of farming practices.

Thanks to its generic design, it can simulate a wide range of annual and perennial species, in association or in rotation, and can be used to predict the long-term effects of a wide range of cropping systems.

What is STICS used for?

STICS is used to assess the agri-environmental performance of cropping systems under the impact of practices, soil properties and climate, particularly in the context of climate change. It can be used to analyse a variety of agricultural systems (e.g. conventional, agro-ecological, organic, low-input, precision) in different production zones around the world, both temperate and tropical. It is a particularly effective tool for designing future agronomic solutions by taking complex processes into account.

Designed for plot scale, it can nevertheless be applied to large spatial scales, from small agricultural regions to continents. Its interoperability means that it can be coupled with different tools to complete the assessment (hydrological model or disease model, for example).

STICS: Who is developing it?

The model is being developed by an international community of scientists from different disciplines. It is open-source, free and collaborative software.