Determining the water requirement of the crop pattern of Ardabil Plain based on up-to-date meteorological statistics

Introduction
Irrigation planning is one of the management strategies, which is based on determining the exact water requirement. The lysimetric method is the most accurate method of determining the water requirement of the plant, but due to the high cost and the need for high technical knowledge, it cannot be used anywhere. The basis for determining the water requirement in the Ardabil Plain is the use of NETWAT software output information, which is known as the National Water Document of Iran. This software calculates the water requirement using the Penman-Monteith FAO model. The output of this software due to the need to update climate information, not introducing the exact range of plains, ignoring sub-climates in some plains and catchments (including Ardabil Plain), and not considering some important crops in the plain (lack of potato water requirement in Ardabil Plain) and the creation of new databases in recent years, should be reconsidered.
 
Material and Methods
This study in Ardabil Plain and water requirement of the dominant crop pattern including wheat, barley, potato, alfalfa, and bean crops was calculated by the Penman-Monteith method and CROPWAT software. To calculate the net irrigation requirement, first, the evapotranspiration potential of the plain was obtained using climatic information from three stations Ardabil, Abi Biglou, and Namin. Then, the effective rainfall of the plain was extracted by the information from Ardabil, Abybeigloo, Namin, Koozeh Topraghi, Gilande, and Samian rain gauge stations. Required information on plain soil was prepared using 22 points in the plain. In the last step of the information preparation phase, the characteristics of the cropping pattern plants were defined using field measurements, local experiments, and FAO publication No. 56. The cropping pattern (91.4% of the cultivated area of Ardabil Plain) included wheat, barley, potatoes, alfalfa, and beans, which according to the five-year statistics ending in 2021, the cultivated area of these crops was 18,300 (32.6%), 10300 (19.4%), 15700 (28%), 5200 (9.2%) and 1200 (2.2%) hectares. After preparing the case information, the water requirement was calculated for each of the wheat, barley, potato, alfalfa and bean products in each of the soil sampling points in 10-day periods during the growing season. Based on the point information obtained, a zoning map of net irrigation needs in the Ardabil Plain was prepared.
 
Results and Discussion
Based on the obtained point information, a zoning map of net irrigation needs in the Ardabil Plain was prepared. The results showed that the zoning of the net need for irrigation divides the Ardabil Plain into three separate parts in this regard. The northern part and the southern part are divided into high consumption, the eastern and southeastern parts are low consumption, and the western part and parts of the center are divided into medium consumption. In addition, according to the zoning results, the average, minimum, and maximum net irrigation needs of the crops were calculated. For the wheat crop, the average, minimum, and maximum net irrigation requirements were 164, 314, and 259 mm, respectively. For the barley crop, the average, minimum, and maximum net irrigation requirements were 110, 255, and 205 mm, respectively. For the potato crop, the average, minimum, and maximum net irrigation requirements were calculated as 325, 613, and 484 mm, respectively. In addition, for alfalfa and bean crops, the mean, minimum, and maximum net irrigation requirements were estimated at 425, 872, and 670 mm and 337, 637, and 497 mm, respectively.
 
Conclusion
The results showed that if the average of the whole plain is used for wheat, barley, potato, alfalfa, and bean crops, instead of point or regional information, about 18, 20, 21, 23, and 22% deficit irrigation, respectively, and in Low consumption sector accounts for about 58, 86, 49, 58, and 48% of excess irrigation. Also, the results showed that using the output numbers of NETWAT software will cause wrong water management in Ardabil Plain. Therefore, using the results of the National Water Document (NETWAT) will lead to incorrect water management due to the problems mentioned. That is if the results of the national document are used as the basis for determining the water requirement in the Ardabil Plain, compared to the minimum and maximum numbers obtained from this research, about 32 and 38 MCM will occur in the exceeding irrigated and deficit irrigated plains, respectively (without considering the impact potato crop due to not calculating its water requirement in the national water document for Ardabil Plain). Considering climate change and also the development of different databases, it is suggested to use up-to-date information for water requirement calculations. Also, considering that the Ardabil Plain is divided into three separate parts in terms of the net need for irrigation, therefore it is recommended that instead of using one number as the consumption in the whole plain, from point or regional information obtained from this research for wheat, barley, Use potatoes, alfalfa and beans.