AquaCrop

Applications

AquaCrop has been used in many projects implemented by FAO, such as the following:

This project aims to reduce hunger and poverty in three African countries – Burkina Faso, Morocco and Uganda – by improving agricultural water management and mainstreaming it into national frameworks and processes. The project uses AquaCrop to enhance crop-water productivity in small-scale farming for both irrigated and rainfed agriculture. AquaCrop provides a baseline for productivity analysis, taking into account major crops, irrigation regimes and agricultural practices in the cropping season.

MOSAICC is a system of models and utilities designed for interdisciplinary assessments of the impacts of climate change on agriculture through simulations. AquaCrop is one of the models used in the system to produce yield estimates.

The overarching goal of this European Union-funded project is to help European and world agriculture cope with extreme climatic events by improving the capability of biophysical models to simulate vegetation responses to climatic variability and extremes.

This study developed a methodology and determined yield and water productivity gaps using a remote sensing tool (ETLOOk) and AquaCrop. Among other things, the project trained 22 national experts in the use and application of AquaCrop and produced a yield and water productivity gap assessment in the Doukkala Irrigation Scheme prepared by FAO and the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture.

This European Union-funded project developed a new precision-irrigation platform that enables growers and the wider community to improve irrigation management and thereby increase water productivity and optimize water and energy consumption. AquaCrop is used as the crop model and is integrated into the platform to simulate yield responses to water.

This FAO project, conducted in collaboration with the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya (TRFK), focused on the impacts of climate change on tea production in Kenya. It provided policy support for the government on climate change and tea in the form of a template for a broader climate-smart agricultural development strategy and a general policy on climate change. Among other things, the project trained TRFK experts on the use and application of AquaCrop and calibrated AquaCrop for tea. The project was implemented from September 2012 to May 2013.

AquaCrop was used to estimate crop yields in Colombia in the framework of the Study of economic impacts of climate change (Estudio de Impactos económicos del cambio climático - EIECC). The scope of the project was to train and support the government and other national and private institutions in the use of AquaCrop, especially for its application in the study of the economic impacts of climate change in Colombia. Among other things, the project trained 105 experts in the use of AquaCrop and developed local calibrations for maize, potato, sugarcane and rice. FAO implemented the project from August 2011 to June 2013.

Furthermore, a list of other potential applications for AquaCrop is available in “Crop yield response to water".