Agroclimatic zoning methodology for agricultural production systems in dry Caribbean region of Colombia

Abstract

The agricultural sector in Colombia and especially, small-scale agriculture subsector in the Colombian Caribbean has been very vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate variability in part due to the poor existence and lack of access to agroclimatic information. The objective was to build a methodology for agroclimatic zoning for crops growing in Colombian dry Caribbean. To achieve this goal, a case study of tomato crop growing in the municipality of Repelon (Atlantico, Colombia) was selected. The methodology was based in the combination of crop-specific soil suitability assessment and the monthly probability of a humidity condition occurrence in the soil for tomato production under water deficit. Probability was constructed through water balances generated from the Palmer drought severity index, calculated for each month of crop production cycle during the 1980 to 2011 series. The resulting maps show defined areas called Productive Niches with lower limitations per soil and low probabilities of soil water deficit in the growth of tomato crop in the municipality. The methodology can be used to delineate areas suitable for planting tomato or other crops in climate variability events in the dry Caribbean region of Colombia

Keywords

• agroclimatic risks
• territorial planning
• mapping
• water balance