Desempenho produtivo do algodao em monocultivo e consorciado com feijao-caupi em resposta a disponibilidade hidrica no solo/Productive performance of the cotton in mono and intercropping systems with cowpea, in response on soil water availability

• Published in: Comunicata Scientiae 2012-01, Vol.3 (4), p.282-282
• Main Authors: de Oliveira, Simone Raquel Mendes, de Andrade Junior, Aderson Soares, Ribeiro, Valdenir Queiroz, Morais, Eddie Leal da Costa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2179-9079; 2177-5133

The water availability in the soil affects directly the distribution and activity of the root system of plants, influencing also plants in productivity. The objective of this research was to evaluate the productive performance and the technical and economical efficiency of the herbaceous cotton in mono and intercropping systems with cowpea, in response on soil water availability levels. The experiment was carried out in the Brazilian Agricultural research Corporation (Embrapa Meio-Norte) experimental area, in Teresina County, Piaui State, Brazil during the period from August to November, 2008. The levels of soil moisture availability were obtained with the increment in the applied water depth, by using a sprinkler irrigation system. The experimental design was a randomized blocks, with five repetitions and irrigation depths arranged into slots. In monocropping system the increase in soil moisture resulted in increase in the yield of cotton seed to reach its maximum value of 3,510 kg ha-1 with the maximum level of moisture in soil (19.88%). The equivalent production of seed cotton in the intercropping system (2.185 kg ha-1) was higher that production in the monocropping system (1.910 kg ha-1), just under the lowest level of moisture in the soil (12.87%), demonstrating that the cotton and cowpea intercropping system showed higher advantage than the monocropping system only when the levels of moisture in soil were reduced.