Abstract
Although the demand for organic fertilizers in agriculture is growing, it remains incipient in some production sectors, such as medicinal plant production, which does not possess specific technology for its development. Solid residues are highly contaminant to water sources, soil, populations and biodiversity but can potentially be used to produce organic composts and vermicompost, such production not only enables nutrient recycling but also acts on soil conditioning, increasing soil organic matter and improving its physical, chemical and biological characteristics, as well as strengthening organic production with an emphasis on medicinal plant production. In this context, recommendations for and applications of organic fertilizers available in the market were reviewed; in addition, the imminent socioeconomic demand for organic compost and vermicompost production was contextualized based on residues from coffee and sugarcane production and cattle farming for application to the medicinal plant production chain. It is concluded that although these sectors produce a considerable amount of residues, they are not being reused in formulation of organic composts and vermicompost, and commercial organic fertilizers recommended for medicinal plant production were not found. Thus, the formulation of vermicomposting and composting from the reuse of agricultural residues, are potential social, economic technologies and tools to be valued and disseminated to traditional and family farmers.
Highlights
Medicinal plants play an important role in health maintenance and comprise the most accessible treatment for 80% of the population (SOUZA-MOREIRA, 2010)
The use of organic composts and vermicompost in agriculture is of great relevance, since it is associated with care for the environment (SANTOS et al.,2014;WU et al, 2014; COTTA et al, 2015) being beneficial for biodiversity, environment, fauna and consumers, which have a high demand for products that are free from chemicals and/or genetic modification (WILLER, 2010; LOPEZ-GONZALEZ et al, 2013; JIANG et al, 2016)
Agricultural and animal farming residues, when disposed of inadequately and in a disorderly manner, have environmental impacts because of the generation of large quantities of contaminants, such as feces, toxic metals, inorganic salts, pathogens, lixiviation and toxic gas emission, especially in containment systems (ERTHA 2010; LIMA et al, 2013; NOGUEIRA, 2015), nutrient immobilization by microorganisms, and contamination of water reserves (SILVA, 2008). These residues can potentially be used in the formulation of vermicompost and organic composts that can be applied to medicinal plant production (WU et al, 2014; MORAES, 2015; SOARES et al, 2017)
Summary
DESAFIOS DA AGRICULTURA ORGÂNICA NA PRODUÇÃO DE COMPOSTO E VERMICOMPOSTO NA PRODUÇÃO DE PLANTAS MEDICINAIS: UMA DEMANDA. Maysa Mathias Alves PEREIRA1; Ludmila Caproni MORAIS1; Adalvan Daniel MARTINS1; José Magno Queiroz LUZ2; Moacir PASQUAL1; Roberta Camargos OLIVEIRA2; Joyce DÓRIA1. Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, MG, Brasil
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