Contribution of Pueraria phaseoloides L. in the Cycling of Macronutrients in oil Palm Plantations

Ismael De Jesus Matos Viégas,Heráclito Eugenio Oliveira Da Conceição,Eric Victor De Oliveira Ferreira,Milton Garcia Costa,Nilda Leonor Pezo Peréz,Henrique Da Silva Barata,Jessivaldo Rodrigues Galvão,Sérgio Dias Do Espírito Santo

doi:10.5296/jas.v9i3.18577

Ismael De Jesus Matos Viégas, Heráclito Eugenio Oliveira Da Conceição + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5296/jas.v9i3.18577

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Abstract

The use of cover crops has become a common practice in oil palm plantations, ensuring greater sustainability to agroecosystems, increasing nutrient cycling and providing greater savings in the use of mineral fertilizers. In this sense, the objective of this study was to evaluate the accumulation of macronutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S) in tropical kudzu plants (Pueraria phaseoloides L.) in oil palm plantations. The experiment was carried out in the municipality of Tailândia, Pará State, using a completely randomized experimental design, four replications and seven treatments (ages of oil palm). The accumulation of macronutrients was obtained through the product of nutrient concentrations and the dry matter of the aerial part of the living, dead and total cover of tropical kudzu. The order of total accumulation of cycled nutrients by legumes was Ca, N, K, Mg, P and S. Tropical kudzu cultivation, as a cover plant, contributes to nutrient cycling in oil palm plantations, but this benefit decreased with the age of palm oil trees.

Highlights

Cover crops are important parts of sustainable agricultural systems in tropical regions
The use of cover crops has become a common practice in oil palm plantations, ensuring greater sustainability to agroecosystems, increasing nutrient cycling and providing greater savings in the use of mineral fertilizers
The objective of this study was to evaluate the accumulation of macronutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S) in tropical kudzu plants (Pueraria phaseoloides L.) in oil palm plantations

Summary

Introduction

Cover crops are important parts of sustainable agricultural systems in tropical regions. 2021, Vol 9, No 3 recommendation of the intercropped planting of tropical kudzu and the oil palm (Viégas and Botelho, 2007). Legumes are known for their ability to increase the amount of soil organic matter (SOM) and their fertility due to symbiosis with rhizobacteria, which provides the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen (N2) and decreased fertilizer costs in commercial plantations (Hutasoit et al, 2017). In this sense, legumes become a possibility to increase the availability of N to oil palm (Agamuthu and Broughton, 1985), in addition to cycling other nutrients

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