Penalization model of maize productivity by CERES-Maize

Abstract

The present work analyzes penalization imposed by the CERES-Maize model in the corn yield variables. The direct soil water evaporation and the crop evapotranspiration were also studied according to CERES-Maize model and SISDA 3.0, using crop coefficient to calculate evapotranspiration and penalization of soil water under field capacity. To compare simulated data with experimental results, a cornfield experiment was carried out with the following treatments: five irrigation water depths and two coefficients of uniformity of water application. Based on simulations and on experimental conditions, it was concluded that the penalization imposed by the model influenced severely the corn crop yield, for treatments with soil water deficit. The soil water evaporation and the crop transpiration calculated by the CERES-Maize model overestimated the rate of the reference evapotranspiration calculated by Penman-Monteith equation. The corn crop evapotranspiration calculated by CERES-Maize model overestimated the real crop water needs.