Modeling Comprehensive Deficit Irrigation Strategies for Drip-Irrigated Cotton Using AquaCrop

The development of a crop production strategy through the use of a crop model represents a crucial method for the assurance of a stable agricultural yield and the subsequent enhancement thereof. There are currently no studies evaluating the suitability of the AquaCrop model for the drip irrigation of Gossypium barbadense in Southern Xinjiang, which is the primary planting region for Gossypium barbadense in China. In order to investigate the performance of the AquaCrop model in simulating the growth of cotton under mulched drip irrigation, the model was locally calibrated and validated according to different irrigation thresholds during a key growth period of two years. The results of the simulation for total soil water (TSW), crop evapotranspiration (ETc), canopy coverage (CC), aboveground biomass (Bio), and seed cotton yield demonstrated a high degree of correlation with the observed data, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of