Productivity evaluation of wheat varieties under modern irrigation using AquaCrop software

All field investigations were carried out in the Northern Gezira irrigation project, located in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. The aim was to evaluate the productivity of the ‘Barcelona’ and ‘Iba’a’ wheat varieties. The assessment process was performed from two perspectives: field data analysis and simulation using AquaCrop software. The evaluation focused on product efficiency and rationalisation of irrigation water, and the identification of a suitable irrigation system. The complementary irrigation was applied by giving a total irrigation water depth of 234 mm to the ‘Iba’a’ wheat variety where the seed productivity was about 4,400 kg∙ha−1. Nevertheless, the ‘Barcelona’ variety achieved a significantly higher yield of 7,200 kg∙ha−1 under the same irrigation conditions, indicating its superior performance. Moreover, the analytical data was agreed with the field study where the simulation results showed that the ‘Iba’a’ variety productivity was 4,596 kg∙ha−1, while the ‘Barcelona’ variety achieved 7,340 kg∙ha−1. It was also shown that the value of water use efficiency for the ‘Iba’a’ variety wheat crop was equal to 1.108 kg∙m−3, while for the ‘Barcelona’ wheat variety it became equal to 1.813 kg∙m−3.