The evapotranspiration of a crop is one of the main information required for proper irrigation management and to develop an efficient water usage plan. Among the methods to estimate the amount of water that is consumed by plants, the use of crop coefficients (Kc), associated with estimates of the reference evapotranspiration (ETo), stands as one of the most promising. This work aimed to deterime the values of Kc for different phenological phases of common bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) of the cultivar UENF-47. Determination of Kc values was performed using a weighing lisimeter and results were compared with values obtained through the FAO 56 standard. Results showed that the adjustment equations proposed by Allen et al. (1998) were adequate for fitting the values of Kc obtained in this experiment. It has been shown that the crop coefficients for phenological phases 3 and 4 proposed by Allen et al. (1998) are adequate for the conditions of crop growth observed in Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, during the autumn/winter period.
crop water requirement; irrigation; evapotranspiration
