The present research aims to assess the soil water balance (SWB), adopting the FAO-56 dual crop coefficient approach, and the behavior of the farmers in relation to irrigation scheduling. The SIMDualKc model was used to evaluate the crop transpiration and soil evaporation components of three crops (olive, peach, and grapevine), cultivated in an irrigation district located in Apulia region (Southern Italy) and was parametrized for 5 years (2013-2017) based on field visits and previous studies. Crop transpiration was 8 mm for olive, 9 mm for peach and 10 mm for grapevine during the initial crop stage, 18 mm, 27 mm and 12 mm respectively for the vegetative growth period, 239 mm, 163 mm and 167 mm respectively for the mid-season, and 49 mm, 12 mm and 10 mm for the end season. Soil evaporation represented 24%,37% and 25% of ETc for olive, peach and grapevine respectively.
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Models’ results of evapotranspiration were used to assess the effectiveness of farmers’ irrigation plan, by comparing it with the volume of water supplied by the consortium. The comparison pointed out that farmers, in most cases, are applying less water than required due to different conditions that can occur.
