ORYZA version 3 (ORYZA v3), or simply ORYZA, is an ecophysiological model which simulates different rice varieties’ development, growth, and yield in response to inherent soil physical and chemical properties, microclimate, and prevailing agronomic practices. The crop model serves as an ideal tool for research addressing:

• optimization of water and nitrogen management
• identification of constraining factors on yield within site-specific conditions
• assessment of the climate change effects on production
• evaluation of varietal performance and effects of traits on target environments
• understanding and exploring interaction of Genotype (G), Environment (E), and Management (M)
• extrapolation of observed data over wider temporal and spatial scales assisting decision-making

The model can be used as an explanatory tool to advance our understanding of rice crop responses to varying environments and as part of experimental studies. The model has been successful in identifying and making the gaps in our knowledge explicit and in guiding research to fill these gaps. The model can also be used in application-oriented research such as the design of crop ideotypes, analysis of yield gaps, optimization of crop management, ex-ante analysis of the effects of climate change on crop growth, and agro-ecological zonation.

To date, ORYZA has reached 145 countries and almost 12,000 users. According to our analytics, almost 45% of those surveyed indicated that they are using the ORYZA model for their current research/work study; 30% would like to learn how to use the model and 25% would like to explore the possibility of using the model in their future research/work.

ORYZA has been the backbone of several existing digital tools at IRRI, including:

• Rice Crop Manager (RCM)
• Remote Sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging Economies (RIICE)
• Philippine Rice Information System (PRISM)
• Odisha India Satellite-based Rice Monitoring System
• Andhra Pradesh India Satellite-based Rice Monitoring System, and
• Weather-Rice-Nutrient Integrated Decision Support System (WeRise)

ORYZA is also a well-known reference in rice crop modeling communities. Most of well-tested and used modeling platforms have integrated ORYZA to enable rice crop growth simulations, including for instance:

• APSIM-ORYZA
• DSSAT
• DNDC-ORYZA