Estimación de las necessidades hídricas de la papaya utilizando la aproximación de los coeficientes culturales duales

The use of irrigation in the cultivation of papaya is increasing in recent years. Thus, there is the need for improved knowledge of the most appropriate irrigation scheduling practices to be adopted as well as the more adequate estimation of crop water requirements. With this objective, the simulation model SIMDualKc was adopted and calibrated. The model performs the calculation of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) with the methodology of the dual crop coefficient (Kc = Kcb + Ke), i.e., using a basal crop coefficient to estimate crop transpiration and an evaporation coefficient to estimation soil water evaporation. The research was conducted at the Experimental Station of Irrigation and Drainage, located in Alquízar, Havana, Cuba. The experiments were carried out between March and November 1997 with the papaya var. "Maradol red". The calibration consisted in searching the crop factors relative to the different stages of crop development that minimize the differences between the simulated and observed soil moisture content. Various goodness of fit indicators were used to evaluate the model predictions. It can be concluded that the model was properly calibrated and can be used to generate alternative irrigation schedules that improve water use and productivity of papaya in the considered soil and climate condition