AquaCrop Model Validation for Simulating Biomass and Water Productivity Under Climate Change for Potatoes

Abstract

Effective crop development modelling is essential for crop management, water resource planning, assessing climate change's influence on agricultural production, and yield prediction. Validation and simulation of the measured data indicated that AquaCrop software is an effective and reliable program for designing pressurized irrigation systems to increase water application efficiency, system performance and the future prediction. The AquaCrop model was evaluated through a solid-set sprinkler and surface drip irrigation systems at 100%, 80%, and 60% of evapotranspiration (ETo) for the potato crop. The AquaCrop model has shown better performance to simulate potato growth and predicting crop variables under various water systems. The surface drip-irrigation system's at 80% of ETo (48.00, 8.05 ton ha-1) Yield had a substantial impact on the yield of potato and water productivity (WP), matching the yield of potatoes that was irrigated with solid-set sprinklers at 100% of ETo (37.39, 7.19 ton ha-1), with 20% water savings. Attributes of potatoes (canopy cover, biomass, potato crop factor (Kc), and water productivity) were affected by increasing water deficit. The simulated of AquaCrop model was a little higher than observed at 80% of ETo treatment, but still has a similar deviation, and it was slightly lower than seen for 60% of ETo treatment at the mid-season. The AquaCrop model predicted the yield of potatoes and biomass correctly when irrigation is adequate. The results indicated that there may be some changes in AquaCrop model simulation operations over future years based on the climate and irrigation method.