Comparison of simplified methods for estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ETo) for producing brazilian regions of coffee

Abstract

This work aimed to estimate and compare two simplified methods to estimate the reference evapotranspiration – Eto, Hargreaves-Samani (HS) and FAO-Blaney-Criddle, (BC) to the Penman-Monteith-FAO (PM) method. The results of the estimates were obtained on the basis of climatic data available at each location under study, using Irriplus software. The cities of interest for the study were selected according to the representativeness of the characteristics of the region between the main brazilian producing centers of coffee: Cerrado, East, South and Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais state, west and southwest of Bahia state, and the cities chosen were Araguari, Patrocínio, Caratinga, Lavras, Varginha, Viçosa, in Minas Gerais state, and Vitoria da Conquista and Barreiras, Bahia state. In all locations, HS equation best fit to the equation of PM, this being recommended for irrigation management in conditions of limited availability of climate data.