Drought is a major problem for Jerusalem artichoke production in rainfed areas, as it reduces inulin accumulation in tubers (Conde et al., 1991;Schittenhelm, 1999;Monti et al., 2005). Under rainfed conditions, drought greatly reduced stalk dry weight, tuber dry weight, sugar yield, and inulin yield of Jerusalem artichoke, and differential responses of Jerusalem artichoke genotypes to drought for these characters were observed (Kocsis et al., 2007(Kocsis et al., , 2008. A supply of 50% of the water requirement reduced tuber yield by 20% (Conde et al., 1991) and 22.8% (Losavio et al., 1997). Among inulin-containing and sugar-containing crops, Jerusalem artichoke is more susceptible to water stress than sugar beet or root chicory (Schittenhelm, 1999).