Dry Spells in Ceará and Applications for Rainfed Agriculture

Abstract The dry spells are characterized as the occurrence of consecutive days with no precipitation in the rainy season, which causes losses in agricultural crops. The present article aims to classify and regionalize the dry spells that occur during the rainy season, as well as to understand the possible consequences on crop losses. The study area was the state of Ceará, in which dry spells was defined as three or more consecutive days with daily precipitation equal to or less than 2 mm. From the IBGE yield data, it was calculated how the cultivation of corn and beans and the results can be inferred that: in the year considered rainy (2009), there was a smaller number of dry spells occurrences, but with losses significant crop losses due to excessive rainfall, mainly in the portions of the Litoral de Fortaleza and Litoral do Pecém. In the analysis of the dry years (1998 and 2012), there was a higher occurrence of dry spells and the losses of harvests even more intense, the dry spells indicator showed lower occurrences of events in the northwest of the state. The results indicate a probable indicator for classifying the consequences of a drought on rainfed agricultural production.