ABSTRACT
General types of agro-climatic zoning systems often refer to broad geographic regions (country, continent, or the entire world). The object is to identify zones of possible crops as related to the length of the vegetative cycles, the choice of crop and varieties, and the possibility of obtaining satisfactory levels of production. Specific types of agro-climatic zoning studies are done on a more detailed scale and refer to a particular crop. In actuality, Latin American and Caribbean countries, which display a wide variety of ecosystems—from deserts to dense and humid forests—have little rational and applicable agro-climatic zoning to facilitate the development of policies that could increase and optimize agricultural and livestock production. An agro-climatic zoning method should of necessity base itself in the values of the climatic variables that characterize the growing period. The elemental index of potential production is calculated through integration of the function of production for each of the corresponding elemental periods.
