Abstract
Tropical agriculture is highly dependent of soluble fertilizers, what raises the cost of production. An alternative to reduce the costs inputs is the use of low-cost alternative nutrient sources, such as the basic rocks. The aim of the work was to evaluate the effect of basalt powder on the soil chemical properties and plant growth. The experiment was arranged in a 2×2×2×3+4 factorial scheme: two soils (clay soil and sandy clay loam soil); two crops (maize and soybean); two agricultural inputs (basalt rock powder and limestone); three application rates (33, 66 and 99 Mg ha–1 of basalt powder or 1, 2 and 4 Mg ha–1 of limestone), and four additional control treatments, with four repetitions. The use of basalt powder resulted in greater shoots growth of maize and soybean plants when compared to the limestone. Basalt powder provided a significant increase in soil pH, Ca and P concentration; however, the higher concentration of P in the soil did not result in the greater P uptake by the plants. Even without a significant increase in the Mg concentration of the soil, basalt rock powder improved the absorption of this nutrient by the maize and soybean plants. Key words: Remineralizer, rock, soybean, maize.
Highlights
Most Brazilian tropical soils are highly weathered, acidic and have low cation exchange capacity (CEC)
The shoot dry matter of soybean plants grown in the clayey soil was significantly higher with the rates of basalt powder, suggesting that, even in a short period of interaction of this material with the soil, there was an improvement in characteristics of this soil, which resulted in the greater development of soybean plants (Figure 1 B1)
The application of basalt rock powder (Renutri®) was efficient to improve some of the chemical characteristics of soil fertility, especially of pH, Ca and P concentration
Summary
Most Brazilian tropical soils are highly weathered, acidic and have low cation exchange capacity (CEC). With the correction of soil acidity and fertility, the country's climatic conditions are adequate for the optimal growth and development of agricultural crops. The correction of fertility in Brazilian tropical soils depends on the application of high rates of fertilizers, which has increased the demand for imports of mineral fertilizers. More than three quarters of the fertilizers used in Brazilian agriculture are imported from other countries. This fact has been a great challenge for the national production of food, since the entire productive sector becomes dependent on the import of agricultural inputs, whose price is linked to exchange variations, as well as dependent on international trade policies
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