Forage turnip can indirectly play an important role for rotational cereal crops

Turnip

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Innovation & Technology

Caio Alves

Published Jul 29, 2020

Purple and white flowers from the forage turnip culture that adorn the experimental field of "Embrapa Meio Ambiente" in Jaguariúna, São Paulo state, reported that winter crops, used as soil cover in the dry season, can also carry the noble strategy of providing food balanced for bees.

Africanized bees (Apis mellifera) travel from flower to flower in perfect harmony with the native bees (without sting) Jataí, Iraí, Arapuá, Mandaçaia and Uruçu-Amarela in the frantic task of collecting pollen.

Forage turnip, a species of the Cruciferous family, is scientifically known as Raphanus sativus. Versatile and resiliant, it is a crop widely used for green manure in the autumn-winter period, in the rotation and or succession of crops such as cotton, soybeans and corn, due to its high capacity for recycling nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus.

As explained by Embrapa researcher, Cristiano Menezes, the choice of forage turnip was due to the fact that it is an undemanding crop and tolerant of low rainfall and its inflorescences, which last for more than 30 days, are a balanced source of food for these pollinating insects.

The use of the culture in this period is further advised during the winter as it is naturally the most difficult phase of the year for bees to find good food sources, where hunger and food imbalance are a potential threat to their survival, 10 ha had been planted with forage turnip this year, where the cost is relatively low. The farmer will need 15 to 20 kg of seeds per hectare, which represents about R$ 150 / ha of investment.