The objective of this work was to determine the water deficit risk for sugarcane crop in different Brazilian regions, focusing on crop-expansion regions. For that, the CSM-Canegro model was used to simulate the 12-month plant cane crop yield in 30 locations. From the estimated values for potential and attainable (without irrigation) yields, the water deficit risk classes were defined according to the climatic efficiency given by the ratio between these yields. The crop model simulated the effect of different soil types and planting dates on the yield, which made possible to characterize the water deficit risk associated to the crop. The region with the highest risk is Petrolina, state of Pernanbuco, whereas the regions with the lowest risk are those similar to Recife, state of Pernanbuco, and Araguaína, state of Tocantins.
Saccharum ; DSSAT; climatic efficiency; potential yield; climatic risk; climate zoning
