ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Water-Smart Food Production
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1446545
Modeling Growth, Yield, Irrigation Water Use and Soil Moisture Dynamics of OPSIS-Irrigated Sugarcane
Provisionally accepted
- Faculty of Agriculture, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
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The Optimized Subsurface Irrigation System (OPSIS) is a neoteric subsurface irrigation method designed for irrigating upland crops. While field trials have evaluated its performance for certain crops, further research is required to enhance its effectiveness. Utilizing crop models to assess OPSIS could reduce the need for time-consuming and costly field trials. This study aimed to enhance the modeling capabilities of the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) to simulate the growth, yield, water use, and soil moisture dynamics of OPSIS-irrigated sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.). Field trial data from Okinawa, Japan, spanning three growing seasons (including the main crop and two ratoons), two distinct planting seasons (spring and summer planting), and two different crops were collected to calibrate and validate the newly developed module linking OPSIS with the APSIM engine. We parameterized, calibrated, and validated the APSIM-Sugar model to simulate the growth, yield, water use, and soil moisture dynamics of OPSIS irrigated sugarcane. APSIM-Sugar successfully represented the growth and yield of OPSIS-irrigated sugarcane. However, the simulation of soil moisture dynamics and irrigation water usage fell short of expected standards. Further research is recommended to improve the simulation accuracy of soil water dynamics and irrigation water usage for OPSIS-irrigated sugarcane.
Keywords: APSIM-Sugar model, Irrigation water use, Japan, optimized subsurface irrigation system, Soil moisture dynamics
Received: 10 Jun 2024; Accepted: 27 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gunarathna and Kumari. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: M.H.J.P. Gunarathna, Faculty of Agriculture, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
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