Water and Irrigation Management

Water and Irrigation Management

Simulation Different Indices of Sweet Corn under Variable Levels of Subsurface Drip Irrigation

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Milad Ebrahimi 1
Javad Behmanesh 1
Vahid Rezaverdinejad 1
Vahid Varshavian 2
1 Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.
2 Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Bu Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran.
10.22059/jwim.2025.387972.1200
Abstract
Drought stress and the increasing need for food production have raised serious concerns about the sustainability of water resources and agricultural systems in the arid regions of the Middle East, particularly Iran. Field experiments were conducted in four replicates at four irrigation levels including 120%, 100%, 80%, and 60% of the full irrigation requirement for sweet corn. The Decision Support System for Agricultural Technology Transfer (DSSAT) model was calibrated and validated to evaluate various irrigation management strategies and their effects on yield, leaf area index, and biomass of sweet corn. The study revealed that the model displayed moderate accuracy (NRMSE between 20-30%) in simulating the impact of severe irrigation stress on the growth and development of sweet corn. The evaluation of the Ceres-Maize model in capturing dynamic growth trends of leaf area index, height, and aerial biomass showed that this model successfully simulated the biomass growth process. During calibration and validation under the 20% deficit treatment, the model reduced the maximum leaf area index by 0.52 and 0.71, respectively. However, the model exhibited significant errors in simulating initial plant growth stages under intense drought stress. The study also indicated that in deficit treatments, measured values reached their final levels more rapidly a trend evident for the plant height index as well. In the 40% deficit regime, the model showed substantial errors in grain yield simulation, with NRMSE values of 27.03 during the validation stage. Overall, the findings demonstrated that the Ceres-Maize model performs adequately in simulating yield and biomass of sweet corn.
Keywords
Ceres-Maize
Deficit Irrigation
Drought Stress
Precision Irrigation
Subjects
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Water and Irrigation Management
Volume 15, Issue 3
Autumn 2025
Pages 479-495