Assessing Crop Water Requirements and a Case for Renewable-Energy-Powered Pumping System for Wheat, Cotton, and Sorghum Crops in Sudan

Zafar A. Khan*, Muhammad Imran, Jamal Umer, Saeed Ahmed, Ogheneruona E. Diemuodeke, Amged Osman Abdelatif

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Climate change is changing global weather patterns, with an increase in droughts expected to impact crop yields due to water scarcity. Crops can be provided with water via underground pumping systems to mitigate water shortages. However, the energy required to pump water tends to be expensive and hazardous to the environment. This paper explores different sites in Sudan to assess the crop water requirements as the first stage of developing renewable energy sources based on water pumping systems. The crop water requirements are calculated for different crops using the CROPWAT and CLIMWAT simulation tools from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Further, the crop water requirements are translated into electrical energy requirements. Accurate calculations of the energy needed will help in developing cost-effective energy systems that can help in improving yields and reducing carbon emissions. The results suggest that the northern regions tend to have higher energy demands and that the potential for renewable energy should be explored in these regions, which are more susceptible to drought and where crops tend to be under higher stress due to adverse climate conditions.
Original languageEnglish
Article number8133
JournalEnergies
Volume14
Issue number23
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

© 2021 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license
(https://creativecommons.org/license
s/by/4.0/).

Keywords

  • Agriculture
  • CROPWAT
  • Crop water requirement
  • Irrigation management

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