Cotton is a promising crop for soil sustainability

Abstract

The coloured cotton crop is the best agroecological alternatives for farmers in semi-arid of Northeasthern region. Cultivation of BRS Verde cotton has been a success on productivity in this region. The practice of monoculture in cotton crop has caused loss of soil quality over the years. The organisms present in the soil are sensitive to changes of land use and management. They are excellent environmental bio indicators, representing important tool to evaluate impacts on ecosystems. In this context, the aim of this research was to evaluate the abundance and diversity of edaphic macrofauna under different management systems in the cotton crop. The design was a randomized complete block design with four replicates with five treatments in 5 collection seasons. The plots consisted of 8 lines spaced 1.0 x 0.30 m for all crops. Three PROVID traps were distributed to capture soil organisms, totally 12 samples/treatments. We identified taxonomic groups, density of organisms, ecological indexes of diversity and wealth of groups. In view of the results, we concluded that the cotton + maize consortium favoured increase of individual’s abundance and richness of faunistic groups. This cotton + maize consortium showed to be a promising alternative for better management and sustainability of the system. We also showed that soil macrofauna is a good indicator of soil quality in different cotton growing systems.