Simulation of yield of rice cultivars under variable agronomic management options using ceres-rice and infocrop-rice models in irrigated plains of Punjab

Dynamic simulation models viz. CERES-Rice and Info Crop-Rice were used to simulate phenology and yield of rice crop. The models were calibrated and validated for rice cultivars (PR115 and PR118) transplanted with three dates, i.e., 15 June, 22 June and 29 June. The statistical evaluation of simulated results by the models revealed good agreement between observed and simulated values. The d-stat values for the days taken to anthesis and maturity and grain yield in CERES-Rice model were 0.92, 0.83 and 0.88%, respectively whereas in InfoCrop-Rice model were 0.94, 0.82 and 0.84%, respectively. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for grain yield was 277.10 kg/ha in CERES-Rice and 328.31 kg/ha in InfoCrop-Rice. The CERES-Rice and InfoCrop-Rice model predicted a rice yield of 6770 kg/ha and 6070kg/ha, respectively for a 15 June transplanted crop which was applied urea fertilizer @ 225.5 kg/ha and cultivated with a plant population stand of 33.3 plants m⁻².