Evaluating InfoCrop model for growth, development and yield of spring wheat at farmers' field in semi-arid environment

Abstract

Evaluation of crop simulation model for growth and development of crops at farmers field is uncommon, as large variability exists in management practices at farmers fields. Present study was attempted to evaluate the suitability of InfoCrop v2.1 model for prediction of growth, development and yield of wheat crop at farmers' elds using two years data i.e. 2015-16 & 2016-17. A total of 42 farmers' elds were selected in Pataudi block of Haryana state. The large variability in wheat sowing date (1-Nov to 25-Dec), seed rate (87 to 150 kgha ), N application rate (70 to 195 kgha ) and number of irrigations (5-8) were observed in farmers' eld. InfoCrop model could able to predict well days to anthesis and physiological maturity within an acceptable error of 5% (RMSE~3 days). Measured leaf area index (LAI) matched well with simulated LAI (RMSE ~ 0.5). The agreement between observed and model simulated wheat grain yield was found to be satisfactory (nRMSE ~ 6-8%). We conclude that InfoCrop-wheat model satisfactorily simulate the growth, development and yield of wheat crop under varied management practices at farmers' elds, and hence can be applied for agricultural applications for farmers.