Crop Evapotranspiration and Crop Water Requirement for Oil Palm in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

The estimation of potential evapotranspiration constitutes an important part in the estimation of crop water requirement.  Many methods exist and all of these are indirect methods using equations that relate climatic data with evapotranspiration.  A comparison of the three methods to estimate crop evapotranspiration being the method of Department Irrigation and Drainage, Doorenbos and Pruitt and Penman-Monteith. Results showed that the method of Doorenbos and Pruitt provides a fairer estimation of potential evapotranspiration, crop evapotranspiration and crop water requirement for oil palm cultivation in Peninsular Malaysia

Keywords: Potential evapotranspiration, oil palm, Peninsular Malaysia