Modelización del rendimiento con Aquacrop-FAO en el cultivo de maní (Arachis hypogaea L.), Ecuador

Abstract

The peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) crop is a grain legume of great importance in arid and semi-arid regions, during the course of the years the increasing climatic variability has caused climatic variations that have affected agricultural performance, and the Aquacrop model emerges as one of the first options for the potential evaluation of crop yield, offering a relatively economical alternative to field trials which are time-consuming and often costly. Given the above, a field trial was carried out to evaluate and calibrate peanut crop yield using the Aquacrop software as the main tool in the decision-making process. The results showed that the performance of the model was good when simulating canopy cover (%) and biomass (t ha-1) (n RMSE= 1.10% and 4.41 t ha-1, respectively). On the other hand, the model did not overestimate the evapotranspiration values; in general, the model performed well for the CC and accumulated biomass simulations, thus showing a great potential to simulate these variables, however, it is necessary to continue testing the model's response to different climates and soils of the region.