Work

Agronomic performance and economic profitability of lettuce fertilized with Calotropis procera as a green manure in a single crop

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: Lettuce is a vegetable crop that requires a large supply of nutrients in a readily available form, within a short period of intense vegetative growth.The use of green manuring, with spontaneous species of the Caatinga biome, can quickly increase the organic matter content in the soil, providing nutrients for the crop.Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the agron omic performance and economic profitability of lettuce fertilized with Calotropis procera in single crop under the semi-arid conditions of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.The experimental design was a randomized complete block, with four treatments and five replicates.The treatments consisted of four amounts of C. procera biomass incorporated into the soil (10, 25, 40, and 55 t ha -1 of dry matter).The maximum agronomic efficiency of lettuce productivity was obtained for a yield of 18.16 t ha -1 , with 40.29 t ha -1 of C. procera biomass added to the soil.The maximum economic efficiency of lettuce yield was achieved by the net income of AU$3,006.50(R$7,546.31ha -1 ), provided by the production of 17.65 t ha -1 of fresh mass, with 32.20 t ha -1 of C. procera biomass added to the soil.The use of C. procera as a green manure presents agro-economic feasibility for lettuce cultivation in the semi-arid conditions of the Rio Grande do Norte state.

Source: Australian Journal of Crop Science

DOI: 10.21475/ajcs.18.12.10.p1114