Brazil: Lettuce irrigated in consortium in agroforestry system produces more with rational use of water

Published 2022년 1월 28일

Tridge summary

A study conducted by researchers from the Federal University of São Carlos and Embrapa Meio Ambiente in 2019 investigated the impact of intercropping lettuce with arugula and radish in a single crop and an agroforestry system (SAF) under full sun and drip irrigation. The results showed that intercropping led to a significant increase in the production of dry mass of vegetables per unit area, by 129.5% on average, compared to monoculture. The study highlighted the importance of selecting the right species for intercropping and emphasized that consortium systems are a useful strategy for increasing productivity, product diversity, and making better use of irrigation water in SAFs. The research also underscored the need for complementary irrigation in SAFs to ensure productivity, especially for crops with a deeper root system, as water availability becomes a limiting factor. The experiment was carried out in beds located in full sun and between the rows of a biodiverse SAF planted in December 2018.

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Original content

Researchers from the Federal University of São Carlos and Embrapa Meio Ambiente evaluated the production of lettuce in a single crop and intercropped with arugula and radish, in an agroforestry system (SAF) and in full sun, when irrigated by drip, in an experiment carried out between September and November of 2019, at the Embrapa Meio Ambiente Agroecological Site. According to Laísa Hurpia of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), “adopting the same irrigation water management, considering the water requirement of lettuce and following the recommendations for its good performance in the two cultivation systems, it was found that there was a trend of lower use of water available in irrigation, most of the time of the experiment, in the treatment with lettuce monoculture in full sun. This fact can be explained, in part, by the lower evapotranspiration, resulting from the lower amount of leaves and roots, that is, the lower density of plants in the monoculture system when ...

Source: Embrapa