Evaluating InfoCrop model for growth, development and yield of spring wheat at farmers' field in semi-arid environment

Abstract

Evaluation of crop simulation model for growth and development of crops at farmers' eld is uncommon, as large variability exists in management practices at farmers' elds. Present study was attempted to evaluate the suitability of InfoCrop v2.1 model for prediction of growth, development and yield of wheat crop at farmers' elds using two years data i.e. 2015-16 & 2016-17. A total of 42 farmers'elds were selected in Pataudi block of Haryana state. The large variability in wheat sowing date (1-Nov to 25-Dec), seed rate (87 to 150 kgha-1), N application rate (70 to 195 kgha-1) and number of irrigations (5-8) were observed in farmers' eld. InfoCrop model could able to predict well days to anthesis and physiological maturity within an acceptable error of 5% (RMSE~3 days). Measured leaf area index (LAI) matched well with simulated LAI (RMSE ~ 0.5). The agreement between observed and model simulated wheat grain yield was found to be satisfactory (nRMSE ~ 6-8%). We conclude that InfoCrop-wheat model satisfactorily simulate the growth, development and yield of wheat crop under varied management practices at farmers' elds, and hence can be applied for agricultural applications for farmers