Calibration and Validation of Aquacrop for Hot Pepper (Legon 18) Irrigation

This paper presents the findings of a study that aimed to calibrate and test the performance of AquaCrop in predicting crop yield and seasonal water requirements for hot pepper (Legon 18) cultivation in a tropical humid coastal savanna zone in south-central Ghana (Cape Coast). The study examined four treatments: T1 (100% ETc), T2 (90% ETc), T3 (80% ETc), and T4 (70% ETc). While AquaCrop was unable to accurately simulate the yield of hot pepper (Legon 18) for all treatments, it did show a low deviation of 4% for Treatment T2. However, the model was able to accurately predict the seasonal water requirements for both experiments. It should be noted that the calibration of AquaCrop was hindered by a lack of data on crop canopy cover, which is a crucial parameter in the model's development.