Productivity, evapotranspiration, and water use efficiency of corn and tomato crops simulated by AquaCrop under contrasting water stress conditions in the Mediterranean region

The FAO AquaCrop model has been conceived as a tool for simulating, on a daily scale, the canopy cover (CC), biomass and the actual evapotranspiration and for simulating, on a seasonal scale, the final biomass, the harvested yield, the cumulate actual evapotranspiration, and the crop water use efficiency. This performance was analysed after a series of tests carried on 12 crop cycles, concerning corn and tomato grown in the Mediterranean region, and having three levels of plant water stress: absence of plant water stress (control), moderately stressed and severely stressed. The results highlight the effects of three factors affecting the AquaCrop performances: the species, the level of plant water stress during the crop cycle and the output variable to simulate.