estimation of potential evapotranspiration and crop coefficient of wheat at rupandehi district of nepal

this study is carried out to estimate the potential evapotranspiration (pet) and crop coefficient (kc) for wheat, bl 3235 variety. a lysimeter is installed to estimate pet at the experimental farm of agricultural research center of bhairahawa, which is located in western part of nepal. the blaney-criddle formula is used to estimate the kc for wheat. the estimated values of pet and kc for wheat at the four crop growth stages (initial, crop development, mid-season/reproductive and late season/maturity) are 3.5 cm, 7.82 cm, 11.3 cm, 1.16 cm and 0.34, 0.67, 0.73, 0.06 respectively. the total value of pet and average value of kc for wheat is 23.78 cm and 0.45. aridity index (ai), the ratio of precipitation to pet, is an important parameter to determine the dryness of a region. the average value of ai at the wheat growing season (january to april, 2011) in bhairahawa is 0.39, and is classified as a semiarid region.