Potato Yield and Water Use Efficiency Responses to Irrigation in Semiarid Conditions

Abstract

Abbreviations: BS T, evapotranspiration calculated by theoretical water balance; BS FDR , actual evapotranspiration calculated by water balance using a sensor with frequency domain refl ectometry * Significant at the 0.05 probability level. ** Significant at the 0.01 probability level. † Within a column, means followed by the same letter are not significantly different according to LSD (0.05). ‡ ns, nonsignificant at the 0.05 probability level.

Analysis of deficit irrigation strategies by using SUBSTOR-Potato model in a semi-arid area

“…The data used were obtained from a field experiment that was conducted during the 2011 and 2012 cropping seasons on a commercial potato farm located in Aguas Nuevas (Albacete, Spain; 38°56 ′ N, 1°53 ′ W, 695 m.a.s.l.) (Camargo et al, 2015a(Camargo et al, , 2015b(Camargo et al, , 2016. For both cropping seasons, the climatic data were obtained from a weather station that was placed on the farm.…”

“…The sprinklers had pressure regulators with output pressure set to 140 kPa and a 9 m wide spray pattern. According to Camargo et al (2015aCamargo et al ( , 2015bCamargo et al ( , 2016, within a section of a centre pivot irrigation system, the experimental design considered four irrigation treatments, which were a percentage (120, 100, 80 and 60%) of the crop water requirements (CWR) computed using the FAO methodology (Allen et al, 1998) during the growing season. The average amounts of total water received by the reference treatment (100%) were 598.2 and 791.1 mm for 2011 and 2012, respectively.…”

“…To guarantee the emergence and establishment of the crop, all irrigation treatments received the same amount of water until plants reached the 'nine unfolded (>4 cm) leaves on the main stem' stage (GS 109). The actual amount of water received by each treatment was established according to Camargo et al (2015b) and Montoya et al (2016). Crop evapotranspiration (ET) was computed by the soil water content variations measured by using EnviroScan™ (Sentek Sensor Technologies, Stepney, Australia) probes (with sensors at 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 m depth) and Watermark™ (Irrometer Corp., Riverside, USA) sensors (placed at 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 m depth).…”

“…The deficit irrigation effect on potato yield and quality depends on the intensity of the water deficit, the stage when it occurs as well as the cultivar duration (early, medium or late maturing) (Shock et al, 1998;Vos and Haverkort, 2007). In this sense, a significant number of studies has shown that yield reduction is greater during the tuberization period (from onset of tuberization to harvest, GSs 400-409 according to the Biologische Bundesanstalt, Bundessortenamt and Chemical Industry (BBCH) scale; Meier, 2001) than the vegetative stage (Nelson and Hwang, 1975;Shock et al, 1998;Onder et al, 2005;Vos and Haverkort, 2007;Camargo et al, 2015b;Daryanto et al, 2016;Kifle and Gebretsadikan, 2016;Paredes et al, 2018). This highlights both tuber initiation and tuber bulking as the most sensitive stages to water deficit (Shock et al, 1998;Hassan et al, 2002;Paredes et al, 2018).…”

“…low amount of precipitation and its disordered distribution during the growing season) (Šťastná et al, 2010); or high mean air temperatures (Šťastná et al, 2010;Raymundo et al, 2017). Camargo et al (2015aCamargo et al ( , 2015bCamargo et al ( , 2016 reported a field data set with potato (phenological stages, crop growth evolution, growth indices, light interception, and relationships of quality and quantity of the potato crop with several irrigation depths) which may be suitable for evaluating the SUBSTOR-Potato model as well as to optimize the management of irrigation water in the area. In this sense, to apply an evaluated DSS such as SUBSTOR-Potato, simulating different ISs over a long period of time, would allow a consistent profitability analysis to be achieved.…”