Produced by: Natural Resources

Management and Environment

Department
Title: Crop evapotranspiration - Guidelines for computing crop water
requirements...

Acknowledgements
These guidelines constitute the efforts of eight years of deliberations and consultations
by the authors, who together formed the working group to pursue the recommendations
of the FAO expert consultation that was held in May 1990 in Rome. The consultation
was organized to review the then current FAO guidelines to determine Crop Water
Requirements, published in 1977 as FAO Irrigation and Drainage paper No. 24 (FAO-
24) and authored by J. Doorenbos and W. Pruitt. The conceptual framework for the
revised methodologies introduced in this publication came forth out of the advice of the
group of eminent experts congregated in the 1990 meetings and who have importantly
contributed to the development of the further studies conducted in the framework of the
publication. Members of the 1990 FAO expert consultation included Dr P. Fleming of
Australia, Dr A. Perrier of France, Drs L. Cavazza and. L. Tombesi from Italy, Drs R.
Feddes and J. Doorenbos of the Netherlands, Dr L. S. Pereira of Portugal, Drs J. L.
Monteith and H. Gunston from the United Kingdom, Drs R. Allen, M. Jensen and W. O.
Pruitt of USA, Dr D. Rijks from the World Meteorological Organization and various staff
of FAO.

Many other experts and persons from different organizations and institutes have
provided, in varying degrees and at different stages, important advice and contributions.
Special acknowledgements for this are due in particular to Prof. W. O. Pruitt (retired) of
the University of California, Davis and J. Doorenbos of FAO (retired) who set the
standard and template for this work in the predecessor FAO-24, and to Prof. J. L.
Monteith whose unique work set the scientific basis for the ETo review. Prof. Pruitt,
despite his emeritus status, has consistently contributed in making essential data
available and in advising on critical concepts. Dr James L. Wright of the USDA,
Kimberly, Idaho, further contributed in providing data from the precision lysimeter for
several crops. Further important contributions or reviews at critical stages of the
publication were received from Drs M. Jensen, G. Hargreaves and C. Stockle of USA,
Dr B. Itier of France, and various members of technical working groups of the
International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) and the American Societies
of Civil and Agricultural Engineers.

The authors thank their respective institutions, Utah State University, Instituto Superior
de Agronomia of Lisbon, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and FAO for the generous
support of faculty time and staff services during the development of this publication.

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Mr H. Wolter, Director of the Land and
Water Development Division for his encouragement in the preparation of the guidelines
and to FAO colleagues and others who have reviewed the document and made valuable
comments.

Special thanks are due to Ms Chrissi Redfern for her patience and valuable assistance
in the preparation and formatting of the text. Mr Julian Plummer further contributed in
editing the final document.