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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Pasture and forage production occupies a large part of the utilized agricultural area in
Portugal, a country prone to the effects of climate change. This study aims at evaluating the impacts
of climate change on forage irrigation requirements and at defining and assessing different adaptation
measures. A second objective focuses on evaluating the impacts on water deficit of rainfed forages.
This study was performed in a Lusitano horse stud farm located in Azambuja Municipality, Portugal.
The climate change impacts on the crop irrigation requirements and crop water deficit were simulated
using the soil water balance model, ISAREG. The reference period considered was 1971–2000 and the
climate scenarios were the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 (2071–2100).
The results show that the adaptation measure aiming at maximum production (several cuts) will
increase the irrigation requirements in the different climate change scenarios between 38.4% and
67.1%. The adaptation measure aiming at reducing the water consumption (only one cut) will lead
to a reduction in irrigation requirements in the different climate change scenarios, ranging between
-31.1% and -64.0%. In rainfed conditions, the water deficit is substantially aggravated in the climate
change scenarios
Description
Keywords
climate change scenarios adaptation measures hay haylage irrigated crops soil water balance model crop water requirements water deficit growing degree-days
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Agronomy 2020, 10, 1758
Publisher
MDPI