Productive and economic efficiency of beetroot fertilised with roostertree in a semi-arid environment

Abstract

The use of spontaneous species from the northeastern semi-arid region can be a viable alternative in the practice of fertilising tuberous vegetables. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the maximum physical and economic efficiencies of the agroeconomic characteristics of beetroot in monocropping as a function of different biomass amounts of roostertree (Calotropis procera) in two cultivations. The experimental design used was randomised blocks with five treatments and five replications. The treatments consisted of the amounts of roostertree biomass incorporated into the soil: 16, 29, 42, 55 and 68 t ha-1 on a dry basis. In each block of the experiments, two additional treatments were added, one without fertilisation (control treatment) and the other with mineral fertilisation, for comparison purposes with the treatment of maximum physical or economic efficiency. The beetroot cultivar planted was Early Wonder. The fertilisation of beetroot to obtain the maximum optimised productive efficiency (36.14 t ha-1) was possible with the incorporation of 61.29 t ha-1 of dry C. procera biomass into the soil. The maximum optimised agroeconomic efficiency (based on a net income of 68,740.15 BRL ha-1) of beetroot cultivation was obtained with an amount of 58.68 t ha-1 of dry C. procera biomass added to the soil. The rate of return obtained was 2.91 BRL for each real invested, and the profit margin was 74.93%.