Sistema de cultivo sobre o solo de palmas forrageiras em período chuvoso.

Abstract

The forage cactus comes from Mexico and was implanted in Brazil around the 20th century, since then it has adapted and spread in the Brazilian Northeast as it has shown to be a plant resistant to drought periods, in this way, the cactus acts as forage being a source of food to herds in the dry season and in a given historical period it acted as a source of human food. On the other hand, the palm was faced in this environment with a pest responsible for decimating a large part of the production of palm plantations in the semiarid region, this pest, in turn, is a hemipterous insect called carmine scale (Dactylopius opuntiae Cockerell). The present research has as general objective to evaluate the performance of forage palm varieties Nopalea cochenillifera, Opuntia stricta and Nopalea sp. cultivated in an innovative cultivation system known as On-Soil Cultivation System in the rainy season. The experimental area is located in the municipality of Jaçanã in Rio Grande do Norte, at the following geographic coordinates: 06o25’33’’S and 36o12’18”W. The aforementioned cultivation system is developed so that the cladode-matrix of the palm plantation is horizontally superimposed on the soil where there is no need for trenching in the area. Therefore, the new system of cultivation on the ground becomes economically more viable to the producer by reducing the labor in the plantation area, as well as the implantation time of the area, having had promising results in relation to the productivity of the plantation. culture compared to the conventional system.