Abstract

DELGADO, Carmen; BAUTISTA, Francisco; IHL, Thomas  and  PALMA-LOPEZ, David. Duration of the rain period and land suitability for rainfed agriculture. Ecosistemas y recur. agropecuarios [online]. 2017, vol.4, n.12, pp.485-497. ISSN 2007-901X.  https://doi.org/10.19136/era.a4n12.1320.

The concept of rainfall season duration (DPLL) is an improvement of another concept known as length of the growing season (LPC). The objective was to develop a suitability map for rainfed agriculture, based on the selection of a rainfall season duration model that includes the humidity index. Data from 65 weather stations in the state of Yucatan and surrounding areas were used. The relationship between the result of the model and the potential vegetation map was analyzed. The humidity index was higher when the Thornthwaite method (MT) was used; this method was also used to obtain the best cartographic model, defining a humid month as the period in which humidity was higher than 0.65. The Gaussian variogram was used, with r2 = 0.98 and a percentage of explained variance of C/(C0+C) = 74 %. The cross-validation of the interpolation showed a r = 0.63 and a square root of the mean square error (RECM) = 1.34. For agricultural purposes, five intervals of humid months were recorded: three to four months, four to five months, five to six months, six to seven months, and seven to eight months.

Keywords : Evapotranspiration; geostatistic; humidity index; pluvial precipitation; Thornthwaite.