Assessing yield, growth and climate traits in agroforestry systems in Southern Brazil

Abstract

The relationship between growth, yield and climate variables using multivariate analysis on agroforestry system has not been documented yet. Considering the potential of agroforestry systems as strategy to improve the balance of crop production and environmental health, the aims of this study were (i) to analyze the canonical correlations among groups of tree growth and climatic variables during four seasons of the year; and (ii) to characterize the relationships between sugarcane growth, yield, and quality variables in two agroforestry arrangements and sugarcane monocropping system. A field experiment was conducted from September 2011 to June 2016. The information generated in this study is relevant, as it provides information to farmers and can assist in the planning of new agroforestry systems due to the better knowledge of tree–crop interactions and climate effects in Southern Brazil. In this study, we demonstrated that crops and trees interact dynamically as a result of variations in the interception of solar radiation by trees in time due to the effect of tree age and arrangement, and we concluded that larger tree arrangements are suggested to benefit sugarcane growth and yield in agroforestry systems in Southern Brazil.