The potentiality of irrigated horticulture pole in the Northern Fluminense is enormous, as the region presents a lot of advantages. However, the viability of the production system will depend on its appropriate management, lacking economical analyses of the applied inputs and results obtained to settle down a guideline. Based on those premises, this work aims to evaluate the appropriate water management to be applied through economical analyses of the answer functions (water x production) and, moreover, considering the different markets to be reached, mainly national and international. An experiment was set up with different irrigation sheets in papaya crop, with "Improved Sunrise Soil 72/12" cultivar, in double arrays with spacing of 3.6 x 2.0 x 2.0 m. A microsprinkler irrigation system was used, with flow and pressure equal to 9.7 x 10-3 L s-1 and 150 kPa, respectively. The applied irrigation levels, as function of the reference evapotranspiration (ET0), were 0; 40; 80; 120; 160; 200 and 240% of ET0. The obtained results, in the period of 16 months, allowed to estimate that the best economical dephts (rain + irrigation) were equal to 2,818 and 2,832 mm, corresponding to 45.4 and 35.5 t ha-1 of the national and international market production, respectively.
economic analysis; irrigation management; papaya
