Simulation of pomegranate (punica granatum l.)‎ growth and yield under different climatic conditions, water and soils using crop simulation models in Egypt

Abstract EN

Crop simulation models (CSM) are now widely used to predict the future crop yields.

The objective of this work is to evaluate the ability of AquaCrop model to simulate growth and yield of pomegranate under different climatic conditions, soil and irrigation water.

Experiments were conducted during 2016 and 2017 seasons in tow governorates of Egypt (ElBehera and North of Sinai).

The validation and calibration of model was performed using field observations relative to yield data in 2016 and 2017.

The results show the observed values of pomegranate yield in the field were greater than the simulated values in two seasons of study 28.543, 30.433 for first location of study (ElBehera) respectively and 10.638, 10.978 ton/ha for second location of study (North of Sinai) respectively, but the differences between them were very low.

The agreement between observed and simulated yield data was good with root mean square error (RMSE), index of agreement (D) and coefficient of determination (R2).

Statistical indicators, RMSE, D and R2 confirmed that the model is very reliable for simulating pomegranate yield for experiments (ElBehera and North of Sinai) in 2016 and 2017 seasons (low RMSE, D and R2 near 1), The relationship between observed and simulated yield produced RMSE ranged from 0.53 to 9.11% , D ranged from 0.985 to 0.994 and (R2) = 0.99.

It was concluded that calibrated AquaCrop model was able to simulate growth and yield of pomegranate in tow experiments.