Evaluation of crop growing periods at some stations in northest Brazil

Abstract

Results of a study of crop .growing periods at some stations in northeast Brazil are presented in this paper. Daily soil moisture values for a minimum period of 25 years are evaluated by means of a simple soil moisture model using temperature and precipitation data. A first order Markov chain model is applied to the soil moisture data and initial and conditional probabilities of wet and dry soil days are obtained. Soil moisture averages and probabilities are used to evaluate crop growing periods at the stations. The effect of uncertainties in the model parameters on the estimated growing periods is investigated.