Drip irrigated sunflower intercropping

Abstract

One of the difficulties in the implementation of agroenergy’s cropping is the growing area competition with subsistence crops. Few studies have been conducted to show the efficiency of intercropping between plants of energy’s potential with cultures of economic sustainability. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of intercropping sunflower cultivars with corn and beans, in the initial growth under localized irrigation. The experiment was conducted at the end of the year 2012, in an area of 950 m2, located in the Campus II-UEPB, Lagoa Seca, Paraíba. The irrigation system was managed based on the Reference Evapotranspiration (ETo), calculated by the Penmann-Monteith Method with data obtained locally. The experimental design was a randomized blocks factorial (2 × 4) × 3, with treatments combining two varieties of sunflower in four plantation systems: single or isolated, intercropped with maize, with bean and with caupi. Each plot consisted of four rows of sunflowers in spacing 0.3 × 0.7 m and length of 5 m, interspersed with rows of beans or corn, except in the isolated system. The central rows of sunflowers were used to measure the following growth characteristics: plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves and leaf área. Data were subjected to analysis of variance by F test and the means compared by Tukey test at 5% probability. The diversification of sunflower varieties promoted differences in initial growth, regardless of the cropping system. There was significant effect at 15 DAS, where the sunflower variety “Advanta CF101” had higher plants than the variety “Hélio 253” at 40 DAS; the variety “Hélio 253” had a stem diameter greater than the “Advanta CF101”.