The geographical information system (GIS) is a data management computational program, which is used to capture, store, recover, analyze and exhibit the geographically referenced space data. So, it is an important tool in elaboration of the climatic zonings, besides making the work faster and exhibiting a better-quality final result as compared to other traditional methods. The climatic characteristics of the areas may influence the final productivity of the coffee crop in different ways. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze the degree of correspondence between climatic zoning and the productive potential for coffee crop in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. It was found that the climatic zoning was efficient to define the homogeneous areas in relation to the productive capacity of coffee crop; 37% of Minas Gerais territory has the suitable conditions for coffee crop, whereas 45% might be cropped with some restriction, and 18% considered as inadequate. The potential areas for coffee crop are concentrated in the Central-Southern part of the State.
Coffea arabica; geographical information system; coffee crop-climatic zoning
