Agrometeorological research on forage cactus and its advances in Brazil

Despite being more resilient than agriculture, the performance of the livestock sector depends greatly on the seasonality of the weather variables, which directly affect the supply and quality of the forage. Many forage species have an accumulation of biomass limited to the rainy season, which restricts the activity. Agrometeorology is the science that studies the effect of meteorological and climatological conditions on the agricultural performance of the species and field activities. The progress of this science to a crop allows the understanding of its interaction with the environment and the measurement of technical data, valuable for the improvement of agricultural resilience, planning, decision making, and expansion of financing and rural insurance policies. As a result, it is important to understand the plant-environment interaction to identify the factors that most influence the performance of crops, to elaborate the climatic risk zoning. Knowledge of phenology improves agricultural management and determines the cutting time. The definition of the crop coefficient helps in water management. The application practices of improving agricultural resilience such as selecting the most suitable cultivars, mulching, intercropping and minimum irrigation use ensure maximization of yield. This knowledge was recently raised for the forage cactus, the most cultivated forage cactus in the world. Hence, the objective of this study was to review the advances of agrometeorology information in Brazil on forage cactus for optimization of irrigation management and maximization productivity of the crop.