Evaluation of DSSAT Model in Estimating Cowpea Water Productivity and Yield at Different Levels of Applied Water

Pulses have a special position, after wheat and rice, in the Iranian people diet. The growth of these plants is very fast and water stress has an important effect on their yield. The objective of this study was to evaluate the DSSAT Model in simulating the growth and yield of cowpea under different levels of irrigation water. An experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications in Kiashahr City, Iran, in the crop seasons of 2017 and 2018. The main treatments included irrigation with management of 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%, and 120% of plant water requirement and the three sub-treatments included irrigation at vegetative or reproductive stages, and full irrigation. In this experiment, the DSSAT simulation model was used to evaluate water efficiency and water balance components. Evaluation of simulated and measured values of grain yield was performed using the parameters of coefficient of determination, t-test, root mean square error (RMSE) and root mean square normalized error (nRMSE). The results showed that the difference between the predicted grain yield and the observed values was acceptable (RMSE=92 and nRMSE = 12.62%). Total biomass was also well simulated (RMSE=130 and nRMSE = 5.91%). Using the measured grain yield and water balance components simulated from the DSSAT model, the water productivity based on evapotranspiration (WPET) was about 33% lower than that based on transpiration (WPT). According to the results, irrigation with 100% water requirement at both vegetative and reproductive stages resulted in the highest transpiration (383mm), and was selected as the optimum irrigation management during the growing season.