Modeling the response of dry bean yield to irrigation water availability controlled by watershed hydrology

Centre Haïtien d’Innovation sur les Biotechnologies et l’Agriculture S (Chibas) / Université Quisqueya
01/01/2021
Article

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106429

Abstract

The effectiveness of agricultural productivity is dependent on the availability of ambient natural resources as well as on the efficiency of on-site management practices. The overall understanding of a production system can help with finding management options that enable for the available resources to be used more efficiently and thus improving productivity. We investigated the response of dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L) yield to water availability in an irrigation district controlled by off-site hydrology to show how integrated knowledge can benefit agricultural production. This study focused on an agricultural system where an upstream watershed provided water for dry bean production in its downstream irrigation district in Haiti. Dry bean growth was mathematically represented using the Cropping System Model (CSM)-CROPGRO-Dry bean model of the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). The upstream runoff was measured to quantify irrigation water availability changes over time. The cultivar parameters of the dry bean model were calibrated to minimize differences between simulated and observed dry bean growth and yield. The model was then used to determine long-term dry bean response to water availability scenarios, including fifteen combinations of five growing periods and three irrigation conditions. The results showed that dry bean productivity was closely associated with the upstream watershed hydrology and that growing dry bean earlier than the standard management scenario (December to March) increased predicted dry bean yield by over 80 % with the available water resources and associated temporal variability. These findings indicate that an integrated systems approach could improve dry bean production by identifying alternative management practices to use the available water more efficiently.

Domaine(s) de Recherche: Agriculture

Mots-clefs

• Crop growth
• Water resources
• Crop modeling
• DSSAT
• Watershed monitoring
• Haïti