CROP COEFFICIENTS TO ADAPT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON EVAPOTRANSPIRATION

Crop water requirements are important factors for food production, expecially in areas where the climate is arid or semiarid. These areas are experiencing increasing population growth, which amplifies the need for more efficient irrigation. Better water use efficiency is needed to produce more food while conserving water as a limited natural resource. Crop coefficients are critically important for estimating crop evapotranspiration, but in literature there are a plethora of articles reporting different values for the same crop, mainly because of different weather and crop management conditions. A new and more precise method of calculation of crop water requirement is presented, which will help improve irrigation scheduling to face future climate change and its effect on world food production.