Production of Peanut Intercropped with Forage Palm in Pernambuco State, Brazil

Abstract

The greater use of crop fields by increasing plant population is an alternative to minimize losses to the farmers who use crop intercropped provides other benefits such as lower incidence of diseases and pests, and better exploitation and enrichment agroecosystem. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the population of peanuts with and without inoculation and intercropping with forage palm on growth, productivity and biomass peanut. The treatments consisted of different populations of peanut (one, two and three rows of peanut row spacing of two meters of cactus pear), with and without inoculant, analyzed in subdivided plot scheme (3 × 2), totalizing six treatments in a randomized block design with four replications. The variables evaluated were plant height, number of branches, shoot dry mass and root nodule number, nodule dry weight, biomass productivity and legumes. The largest population of plants in number of lines of peanut intercropped with forage cactus promotes greater total biomass production and yield of beans and does not alter the height, branch number, dry mass of aerial part roots and nodules. The inoculant application did not result in to increased productivity biomass and growth of peanut plants, their use is not indicated. The planting of a row of peanuts between the rows of palm is not economically recommended.