Abstract
The vegetables intercropping practice triumph in family farming depends on several production factors, including the crops involved, green manuring and plant density of component crops. Therefore, the aim of this work was to assess whether there is agro-economic viability in the radish-arugula intercropping, in different equitable amounts of M. aegyptia and C. procera biomass (20, 35, 50 and 65 t ha-1 on base dry) and in diverse arugula population densities (40, 60, 80 and 100% of that recommended density for single crop - RDSC), combined with 100% of the RDSC for radish in two cropping years. The characteristics, the commercial productivity of radish roots and the arugula green mass yield were evaluated and in the intercropped system, the agronomic indices: land equivalent ratio (LER), intercropping advantage (IA), actual yield loss (AYL), productive efficiency index (PEI), score of the canonical variable (Z), and the economic indicators: gross income (GI), net income (NI), rate of return (RR) and profit margin (PM). The greatest agro-economic advantages of the radish-arugula intercropping were achieved with an LER of 1.64, PEI of 0.86, Z of 1.54, GI of R$ 45,543.92 ha-1, NI of R$ 24,662,31 ha-1, RR of R$ 2.20 for each real invested, and PM of 56.37%, respectively, in the combination of 65 t ha-1 of M. aegyptia and C. procera biomass and arugula population density of 100% of the RDSC, corresponding to the density of 1 million plants per hectare.
Highlights
The vegetables production is an intensive agricultural activity, which demands a high technological contribution, large areas of land, abundant water and constant labor, so as to obtain products of better quality and competitive prices in the market
3.1 Agronomic indexes Significant interaction between treatment-factors, equitable amounts of M. aegyptia and C. procera biomass incorporated into the soil and arugula population densities was recorded for the intercropping advantage (IA), and no significant interaction was observed for land equivalent ratio (LER), actual yield loss (AYL), productive efficiency index (PEI), and for the score of the canonical variable - Z (Table 4)
3.2 Competition indexes Significant interaction between the treatment-factors, equitable amounts of M. aegyptia and C. procera biomass incorporated into the soil and arugula population densities was recorded in the aggressivity of radish (Ar) and arugula (Aa) crops, as well as in competitive ratio (CR) of the intercropped system (Table 5)
Summary
The vegetables production is an intensive agricultural activity, which demands a high technological contribution, large areas of land, abundant water and constant labor, so as to obtain products of better quality and competitive prices in the market This modern production has been practiced in an expressive way by small family farmers, presenting great social and food importance for the Brazilian regions, as well as providing job and income generation. This production system involves different aspects of the production chain, such as organic inputs, infrastructure and trade, and must be managed with competence to obtain good results and produce at low economic and environmental costs (Cecílio Filho et al, 2015). The radish and arugula have been identified as companion crops when planted in intercropping (Hata et al, 2019; Rezende et al, 2009), as they have distinct morphological architectures and ecological niches that maximize the light utilization and water absorption and nutrients, when compared to their monocultures in a given area; promote the suppression of pests and diseases, provide greater productivity per planted area and biological diversification of the environment (Meira et al, 2012)
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