Simulation of Sugar Beet Yield and Water Use Efficiency under Different Irrigation Period

Due to importance of sugar beet in food industry in Iran, it is necessary to study the reply of the crop to different irrigation water. Since applying farm studies need time and costs, it is important to use cropping model. To achieve the aim, AquaCrop and CropSyst models were evaluated for simulation of sugar beet yield under different irrigation scenarios. To do this end, data collected from Feiz Abad agricultural research station in Qazvin from four irrigation periods (I1: 6, I2: 9, I3: 12 and I4: 1 day) were used. Results showed that AquaCrop accuracy was better than CropSyst. In average, AquaCrop and CropSyst error for simulation of sugarbeet yield were 1.7 ton.ha-1 and 4.2 kg.ha-1, respectively. Results for water use efficiency showed the superiority of AquaCrop. Efficiencies of both crop models for yield and water use efficiency were acceptable. AquaCrop and Cropsyst error for simulation of water use efficiency were 0.21 kg.m-3 and 0.50 kg.m-3, respectively. Comparison of R2 for both models revealed that AquaCrop results had better correlation with observed data compared to CropSyst ones. According to all results, it is proposed to use AquaCrop for simulation of sugarbeet.