Avaliação agronômica e econômica da lavoura de Coffea arabica L. em diferentes níveis de adubação nas fases de implantação e condução

Abstract

The high cost of fertilizers currently leads to higher production costs and pressures the rural producer to be increasingly efficient in the use of this essential input for vegetable production, which has a participation of about 18.45% in operating costs. Such factors lead coffee growers to reduce fertilization as a survival strategy in the short and medium term, thus affecting crop nutrition. The opposite also happens, when the price of coffee is high and the financial conditions are favorable, the coffee growers can exceed the fertilization beyond what is necessary. Therefore, the objective of the present work was to estimate the losses in productivity caused by low or high levels of fertilization, determining the best doses of fertilizers (N, P and K) that do not compromise productivity, also making an economic analysis in the period of implantation. and driving the coffee crop to the first production under rainfed conditions. The experiment was conducted in the Coffee Culture Sector of the Federal University of Lavras-MG from November 2018 to May 2021 using seedlings of the cultivar Mundo Novo IAC 379/19. The design was in randomized blocks, with six treatments, four replications and subdivision of plots in time. Fertilization levels were 10%, 40%, 70%, 100%, 130% and 160%, where the standard fertilization is 100%. The productivity of processed coffee (sc ha-1) was significant under the effect of fertilization levels and the best fertilization level with NPK where the maximum productivity was obtained was 119.06% in relation to standard fertilization, that is, 1 80% more than the indicated fertilization, whose doses were 239.48 kg ha-1 of N and 177.8 kg ha-1 of K2O. The minimum fertilization required for rainfed coffee plantations in the second year of formation after transplanting, without loss of more than 10% of productivity, is: 149.7 kg ha-1 of N and 111.15 kg ha-1 of K2O, and the critical nitrogen ranges were: 30.30 g.kg-1 and 32.43 g.kg-1. Regarding the economic analysis, it was concluded that coffee plants with fertilization levels between 10% and 40% of the standard fertilization have their productivity compromised; the level of 74.43% is satisfactory from an economic point of view, with no losses in productivity greater than 10%; crops implanted with 130% and 160% of the standard fertilization do not have good economic results in relation to the level of 70%; given a scenario of lower costs with fertilizers and better prices for a bag of coffee, it may be interesting to increase the level of fertilization in the range between 70% and 119%.