Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the application of irrigation levels in the productivity and water use efficiency, in the soil and climatic conditions of the municipality of Colinas do Tocantins, located in the Mid-Northern region of the State of Tocantins. The cowpea cultivation system was submitted to the application of five irrigation blades, based on ET0—Reference Evapotranspiration: Blade 0% of ET0, Blade 50% of ET0, Blade 75% of ET0, Blade 100% of ET0 and Blade 125% of ET0 (B0, B50, B75, B100 and B125% of ET0). The descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data, applying the 95% confidence interval to discriminate the differences between the treatments, since the replicates were constituted of 100 plants harvested at random within the plot for each treatment and no design method was performed. A significant effect of the different levels was found on all evaluated components, with the exception of the length of the pod, which did not differ in the irrigation levels. The increase in irrigation contributed to the increase of the results of the components that compete directly for higher productivity, such as number of pods per plant, weight of pods and number of seeds per pod. In these results, it was found that higher irrigation levels confer higher yields. Water-use efficiency—WUE behaved as per productivity trend, that is, it decreased with the reduction of irrigation levels.
Highlights
The cultivation of cowpeas plays an important role in agricultural development, both economically and in terms of nutrition
The increase in irrigation contributed to the increase of the results of the components that compete directly for higher productivity, such as number of pods per plant, weight of pods and number of seeds per pod
The (PH) component was favored by the irrigation levels of 50% and 125% respectively, and differed from the others at 5% of probability, while the levels 0% and 75% presented the least effect for this component and did not impose difference between them at 5% probability. [9] studying the physiological characteristics and production components of cowpeas under different irrigation levels found lower results for plant height
Summary
The cultivation of cowpeas plays an important role in agricultural development, both economically and in terms of nutrition. It performs socioeconomic functions, especially for low income rural populations, meeting their nutritional needs. The estimate for Brazil in the 2017/2018 harvest is a reduction of area from 1409.30 thousand ha to 1402.60 thousand ha (0.5%) and yield from 506 kg∙ha−1 to 470 kg∙ha−1 (7.1%) in the face of unfavorable climatic conditions in this harvest. With this climate standing, production should be 7.6% lower, reaching 659 thousand tons. The estimate for the state of Tocantins in the 2017/2018 harvest is for the maintenance of an area of 41.1 thousand ha and a yield reduction from 1630 kg∙ha−1 to 1274 kg/ha (21.9%), and a reduction in the production estimate, from 67 thousand t to 52.4 thousand t (21.8%) [3]
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