Abstract
ABSTRACT Passion fruit productivity in the state of Acre is lower than the national average, influenced by several factors, among them water stress in rainfed cultivation. Thus, aiming at alternatives for the drought period, this study aimed to evaluate the economic profitability of the use of tall seedlings and long root system in the cultivation of organic yellow passion fruit. Five root lengths were evaluated: 25 cm; 50 cm; 75 cm; 100 cm and 125 cm in a randomized block design, with four blocks and four plants per plot. The experiment was carried out in the municipality of Rio Branco, state of Acre, at the “Seridó” Ecological Site from November 2015 to July 2017. For economic analysis, all fixed and varied costs such as seed production, orchard planting, crop management, phytosanitary control, harvesting and capital depreciation were considered. Analysis of variance and regression analysis were performed for productivity and economic indicators. Plants with root system with estimated length of 1.14 m promote higher fruit yield (7,613 kg ha-1), net revenue of R$ 17,665.44 ha-1, benefit/cost ratio of 2.5, profitability of 177.5%, remunerating the family labor with R$ 211.75 day-1. However, all treatments proved to be profitable.
Highlights
Brazil stands out as the world's largest passion fruit producer (703,489 t), with 489,898 t produced in the northeastern region, followed by the southeastern (98,821 t) and northern regions (54,635 t), but export is still incipient and occurs on a small scale in the form of concentrated juice (76%) and fresh fruit (1.5%) (IBGE, 2017; MELETTI, 2011)
The negative effects of drought found in tropical regions are reduced with cultivation techniques that increase water and nutrient uptake using seedlings with vigorous root system with continuous growth (PERES et al, 2010)
Treatments consisted of the production of seedlings in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tubes of 0.075 m in diameter, with variations in the length of the root system: 0.25 m; 0.50 m; 0.75 m; 1.00 m and 1.25 m
Summary
In the state of Acre, passion fruit productivity is low (8.27 t ha-1) compared to the national average (14.10 t ha-1) (IBGE, 2017), being influenced mainly by water stress in rainfed cultivation, low pollination during periods of high rainfall and other pollination problems. Water stress reduces growth and flowering (SILVA et al, 2019). Passion fruit irrigation increases the fixed cost and requires greater investment capital, which according to Pimentel et al (2009), accounts for 34% of the production cost. The low supply increases the price in the off-season and forces the import of the fruit from other states. The negative effects of drought found in tropical regions are reduced with cultivation techniques that increase water and nutrient uptake using seedlings with vigorous root system with continuous growth (PERES et al, 2010)
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