Estimation of Crop-coefficients and Evapotranspiration of Field Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Using Lysimeter and Empirical Models under Temperate Climate

Abstract

During Rabi 2020-21, a field experiment was conducted at SKUAST-K, Shalimar, India, focusing on field Pea (Pisum sativum L.). The aim of this study was to determine the water requirement and single crop coefficient (Kc) of pea using a lysimeter setup. Four empirical models were employed to calculate the reference evapotranspiration and were then compared with the actual crop evapotranspiration at different growth stages. The Kc values for field pea were 0.50, 0.80, 1.15, and 1.10 during the initial, development, mid-season and late season stages, respectively. The water requirement was found as 239.9 mm for the whole cropping period of the pea. Among the models, the Penman Montieth crop evapotranspiration model exhibited the closest agreement with the corresponding values obtained in the field through water balance study, yielding RMSE, RSR, and NSE values of 0.97, 9.5, and 11.6, respectively. These findings highlight the significance of using Penman Monteith crop evapotranspiration model for estimating crop evapotranspiration in temperate regions.