Estimating potato crop wetness duration from agrometeorological data

Abstract

Hourly meteorological observations over a potato crop field were used to validate a biophysical model and different thresholds of relative humidity (RH) to simulate the onset. cessation and total wetness duration (WD). The model showed the capability to simulate multiple wet and dry conditions as well as prolonged moist conditions with a mean absolute error of less than an hour. The deviation between measured and estimated onset and total WD was more pronounced when only RH was used. However, under the prevailing agroclimatic conditions of potato growing regions in India, 80% RH threshold may adequately be accurate to estimate WD for many weather-based disease management advisories.