IRRIGATION COSTS OF COFFEE CULTIVATION IN DIFFERENT TYPES OF EQUIPMENT AND AREA SIZES

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the full costs of different irrigation systems of the coffee crop in four sizes of area in a period of 10 years and the method of irrigation more economically viable in the size of the area. Irrigation systems were: net sprinkler, fixed sprinkler, portable sprinkler and drip irrigation. The four area sizes were: 3, 10, 20 and 50 ha. To estimate the costs of implementation of irrigation systems in the coffee crop, it was designed four projects for each irrigation system, a total of 16 projects. At the end of the simulations it obtained the total costs with the sum of fixed and variable costs of each system and then compared. The unit costs of irrigation were, respectively, for the areas of 3, 10, 20 and 50 ha: drip irrigation (R$ 20.234,44; R$ 19.079,92; R$ 18.349,12 and R$ 20.901,66), net sprinkler (R$ 23.654,10, R$ 20.586,41 and R$ 19.848,13 and R$ 20.506,51), fixed sprinkler (R$ 21.730,85; R$ 20.670,43; R$ 22.762,07 and R$ 22.272,58) and portable sprinkler (R$ 32.386,36 and R$ 33.164,37 and R$ 34.341,63 and R$ 35.961,53). The irrigation method more economically feasible in this study was the drip irrigation.