Simulation of Sugarcane Yield and Water Productivity under Farm Condition and Determination of Appropriate Irrigation Amount and Interval using AquaCrop

Crop modeling is a widely used method for simulating the crop yield under different irrigation managements. Due that, in the study, a water-driven crop model, AquaCrop, was used to simulate and determine the optimal irrigation quantity and interval in Dehkhoda Sugarcane Cultivation and Industry Group (DH) farms. The data were collected from DH farms during 2019-2021. The total area under study was 230 hectares. The evaluation results showed that the AquaCrop model had an acceptable error for simulating yield (RMSE<5.6 ton ha-1) and water productivity (RMSE<2.2 kg m-3). In addition, the results of favorable efficiency (d>0.99), excellent accuracy (NRMSE<0.1) and high determination of coefficient (R2>0.94) showed that the simulation results of AquaCrop can be trusted. For this reason, 21 irrigation scenarios were simulated using the AquaCrop model in order to obtain the most appropriate irrigation amount and interval. Based on the results, close-end furrow irrigation with interval of seven days and the amount of 33000 m3 ha-1 was determined as a suitable option in terms of yield (132 ton ha-1) and water productivity (4 kg m-3). However, this scenario is for normal water conditions and if water stress conditions are created; a maximum of nine days for irrigation interval and at least 21000 m3 ha-1 is a better option for implementation in DH farms.