Calibration and Validation of DSSAT (CROPGRO) Model for Winter Irrigated Cotton in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

Crop simulation model is used for predicting the crop productivity under various crop management practices and find out the yield gap of cotton crop, that require determination of genetic coefficient of a crop cultivar. Successful use of a crop model depends on the accuracy of calibration and validation of different parameters. This paper aimed to evaluate the DSSAT model using experimental data on the different nutrient management practices for cotton and calibrated and validated the data by using DSSAT (CROPGRO) model. The field experiment was conducted at Cotton Breeding Station, TNAU, Coimbatore from 2018 to 2020 in winter irrigated season (August-January). The GNECAL tool from DSSAT was used to calibrate the CO17 variety of cotton. The yield and yield attributes, phonological stags, harvest index and biomass as simulated by model were compared with the observed data. The results for model predictions showed that the simulated growth and development of cotton were in good agreement with their corresponding observed values. The CROPGRO model can be successfully used for simulating the growth and yield of crop for major cotton growing regions in Tamil Nadu.