Input data set: Crop calendar

The GGCMI Phase 3 crop calendar provides global planting and maturity dates for major crop types used in ISIMIP3 crop model simulations. The dataset includes both static observational crop calendars and annually varying crop calendars that account for climate-driven adaptation of growing periods.

The crop calendar dataset provides planting and maturity dates on a global 0.5° × 0.5° land grid, distinguishing rainfed and irrigated cropping systems.

The 2015soc dataset is the static GGCMI Phase 3 crop calendar and provides representative growing seasons for crops. It is a composite product merging multiple observational data sources, with gap-filling and spatial extrapolation to provide global coverage. Separate growing seasons are provided for winter and spring wheat and for the two main rice growing seasons.

The histsoc, ssp126soc-adapt, ssp370soc-adapt, and ssp585soc-adapt datasets provide annually varying crop calendars for 15 crops. The historical dataset spans 1850-2014, while the scenario datasets continue from 2015 onwards until 2100. For maize, rice1, millet, sorghum, soybean, spring wheat, and winter wheat, growing seasons are computed using the climate-adaptive methodology of Minoli et al. (2019, 2022). The May 2026 update recalculated the complete historical and scenario time series using the revised methodology and standardized the file format across all datasets.

The static 2015soc crop calendar is based on the GGCMI Phase 3 crop calendar dataset, a composite product merging multiple observational crop calendar datasets into a globally consistent product:

Jägermeyr, J., Müller, C., Minoli, S., Ray, D., & Siebert, S. (2021). GGCMI Phase 3 crop calendar [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5062513

The annually varying crop calendars for histsoc, ssp126soc-adapt, ssp370soc-adapt, and ssp585soc-adapt are generated using the climate-adaptive crop calendar methodology developed by Minoli et al. and extended for the May 2026 ISIMIP update. The adaptation methodology is described in:

Minoli, S., Jägermeyr, J., Asseng, S., et al. (2019). Modelling cropping periods of grain crops at the global scale. Global and Planetary Change, 174, 35–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2018.12.013.
Minoli, S., Jägermeyr, J., Asseng, S., et al. (2022). Global crop yields can be lifted by timely adaptation of growing periods to climate change. Nature Communications, 13, 7079. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34411-5.

The software used to generate the annually varying crop calendars distributed by ISIMIP, including the May 2026 update extending the historical record to 1850, is publicly available through Zenodo:

Minoli, S. (2025). Crop calendar adaptation workflow (software). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21516287.

Update May 2026:
While the first version of the historical data (v20260212) only went back to 1991, the new version starts as early as 1850. With this update, the future data sets were recalculated, and all files were standardized to a uniform format. However, no changes to the data itself are expected. Data for crops with a static calendar have been removed; we recommend using the data from the 2015soc datasets instead.

The data can be downloaded from the ISIMIP Repository at:
https://data.isimip.org/search/tree/ISIMIP3b/InputData/socioeconomic/crop_calendar/

For ISIMIP participants, these files are also available for download from the DKRZ server using the path /work/bb0820/ISIMIP/ISIMIP3b/InputData/socioeconomic/crop_calendar/