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<p>Reliable information on crop water-use dynamics is essential for improving irrigation management in water-limited regions; however, conventional weighing lysimeters remain expensive and operationally demanding, limiting their widespread application in developing countries. This study presents the development and field evaluation of an indigenized Smart Field Lysimeter (SFL) designed for relative assessment of crop water-use dynamics. The system integrates load-cell-based weighing, multi-depth soil moisture and soil temperature sensing, solar-powered operation, and a microcontroller-based data acquisition unit. The SFL was evaluated during a 120-day maize (<i>Zea mays L</i>.) growing season in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where daily crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and growth-stage crop coefficients (Kc) were estimated using a mass-balance approach and compared with FAO-56 recommendations. Seasonal maize ETc was approximately 380&#xa0;mm, with the highest water use occurring during the mid-season growth stage (167.6&#xa0;mm; mean 4.19&#xa0;mm day⁻¹). Mean crop coefficients increased from 0.34 during the initial stage to 1.15 during mid-season before declining to 0.60 during crop maturity. The temporal behavior of ETc and Kc broadly followed FAO-56 trends while exhibiting site-specific differences associated with local climatic conditions, crop development, and the experimental configuration. Continuous soil moisture and soil temperature monitoring further demonstrated stable system response to irrigation, rainfall, and crop development throughout the experiment. Although the results represent observations from a single lysimeter and growing season, the developed SFL proved capable of monitoring relative crop water-use dynamics and provides a practical, low-cost platform for exploratory irrigation and crop water-use research in data-scarce environments. Future work should focus on multi-season validation, replicated field experiments, and independent comparison with reference lysimeters.</p>

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Development and Performance Evaluation of an Indigenized Smart Field Lysimeter for Relative Crop Water-Use Assessment

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月16日

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  • Muhammad Faisal,
  • Fiaz Hussain,
  • Shoaib Rashid Saleem,
  • Saliha Qamar

摘要

Reliable information on crop water-use dynamics is essential for improving irrigation management in water-limited regions; however, conventional weighing lysimeters remain expensive and operationally demanding, limiting their widespread application in developing countries. This study presents the development and field evaluation of an indigenized Smart Field Lysimeter (SFL) designed for relative assessment of crop water-use dynamics. The system integrates load-cell-based weighing, multi-depth soil moisture and soil temperature sensing, solar-powered operation, and a microcontroller-based data acquisition unit. The SFL was evaluated during a 120-day maize (Zea mays L.) growing season in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, where daily crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and growth-stage crop coefficients (Kc) were estimated using a mass-balance approach and compared with FAO-56 recommendations. Seasonal maize ETc was approximately 380 mm, with the highest water use occurring during the mid-season growth stage (167.6 mm; mean 4.19 mm day⁻¹). Mean crop coefficients increased from 0.34 during the initial stage to 1.15 during mid-season before declining to 0.60 during crop maturity. The temporal behavior of ETc and Kc broadly followed FAO-56 trends while exhibiting site-specific differences associated with local climatic conditions, crop development, and the experimental configuration. Continuous soil moisture and soil temperature monitoring further demonstrated stable system response to irrigation, rainfall, and crop development throughout the experiment. Although the results represent observations from a single lysimeter and growing season, the developed SFL proved capable of monitoring relative crop water-use dynamics and provides a practical, low-cost platform for exploratory irrigation and crop water-use research in data-scarce environments. Future work should focus on multi-season validation, replicated field experiments, and independent comparison with reference lysimeters.