Parameters for modelling cocoa fruit growth

Abstract

Cocoa is important for Brazilian exports and demands tools to help make crop forecasts. Threshold temperature and thermal constants were calculated for each stage of fruit development after estimating the mean length of the different stages. The main meteorological factors found to have significant relationship with the different length of the stages of the fruit were rain, solar radiation, pitch evaporation, class A pan evaporation, cloudiness, maximum and minimum temperatures, average temperature and hours of sunshine.