Abstract
The objective of this study was to determine the economic level of drip irrigation for the crop of maize in the region of backwoods of Alagoas in Brazil, aiming at a sustainable production and economically viable. For this, the hybrid AG7088 was submitted to five irrigation levels (40, 80, 120, 160 and 200% of ETc) in an experiment developed at the Federal Institute of Alagoas/Campus Piranhas, with a randomized block design and four replications. Harvesting was carried out 98 days after planting, where grain yield with 12% moisture reached 2.1 and 11.8 Mg ha-1 and water use efficiency of 181.8 and 55.3 mm Mg-1 in treatments with 40 and 160% of ETc, respectively. The maximum a physical productivity estimated by the production function was 11.3 Mg ha-1, obtained with 919 mm of irrigation water. The maximum economic yield was 11.1 Mg ha-1, obtained with level of 841 mm (160% ETc).
Highlights
Maize is an of the most cereals consumed in the Northeast region of Brazil, both as an industrialized product and in natura, due to its use in human and animal feed, as well as exercises an important socioeconomic role for the region (Cruz et al, 2006)
The cultivation of maize in this region predominates in the rainy season, which occurs from April to August, but in some years occurs in periods without rain and the crop is subject to water deficit
According to Brito et al (2013), the occurrence of water deficit during the feeding and the filling of the grains causes losses in the agricultural productivity, because in this phase occurs the synthesis of components of the yield
Summary
Maize is an of the most cereals consumed in the Northeast region of Brazil, both as an industrialized product and in natura, due to its use in human and animal feed, as well as exercises an important socioeconomic role for the region (Cruz et al, 2006). Alagoas occupied the eighth place, with annual production of 25.1 thousand tons and average yield of approximately 0.6 t ha-1. This low agricultural yield compared to the other NE States (mean of 2.5 t ha-1) occurs mainly due to the irregular distribution of rainfall. According to Brito et al (2013), the occurrence of water deficit during the feeding and the filling of the grains causes losses in the agricultural productivity, because in this phase occurs the synthesis of components of the yield. The maize water requirement, which is 200 to 400 mm during the production cycle (Bergamaschi et al, 2006), when not fully supplied by rainfall, should be complemented by irrigation
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