EVALUATION OF AQUACROP PERFORMANCE IN SIMULATING WHEAT AND MAIZE CROPS PRODUCTION IN EGYPT

ABED EL BAKI, AMAL ABO EL; JNAD, IHAB; NAAMAN, MAZEN; RAES, DIRK

doi:10.21608/ejar.2018.139181

EVALUATION OF AQUACROP PERFORMANCE IN SIMULATING WHEAT AND MAIZE CROPS PRODUCTION IN EGYPT

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Agricultural Engineering Research Institute (AEnRI)-Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Egypt

² Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD), Syria

³ Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, KU Leuven University, Belgium

10.21608/ejar.2018.139181

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the AquaCrop model in stimulating the production of wheat and maize crops in old lands in the Nile valley and the Delta region of Egypt, by using the fully irrigated system. Multi-year field experimental data from 2000 to 2016 were used to calibrate the model for simulating grain yield under full irrigation conditions. The model performance was evaluated using normalized root mean square error (NRMSE). The best-calibrated crop files had 8.7% and 3.9% of NRMSE for wheat and maize respectively, for the relationship between the observed and the simulating grain yield. The performance of the model was evaluated to simulate eight irrigation scheduling scenarios for each crop, which may be applied by the farmers. The model reflected a good performance in simulated those scenarios with NRMSE less than 10%. The better simulation results were observed by applying six and seven irrigation events for wheat and maize, respectively. In conclusion, this calibration process is a step to further applications of AquaCrop model as a simulation tool in supporting the agricultural decisions planning, in order to face the current and future challenges of water shortage and irrigation systems improvement.

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