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Agronomic Evaluation of Legume Cover Crops for Sustainable Agriculture

  • Crop Production
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Russian Agricultural Sciences Aims and scope

Abstract

The agronomic characteristics of different legume cover crops and their effects on soil chemical properties were investigated in a short-term field study. We compared weed biomass, nitrogen equivalence, growth rate, leaf chlorophyll content, cover crop biomass, soil total organic carbon, and soil total nitrogen under eight different legume cover crops in a short-term field experiment. We found the highest growth rate, cover crop dry biomass, N plant content, and N contribution with C. ochroleuca plants, whereas for leaf chlorophyll content, soil organic carbon, and total nitrogen the highest values were found with M. pruriens. We did not find any significant difference among C. ochroleuca and M. pruriens for cover crop dry biomass. Our findings suggest that the incorporation of cover crops into the soil can change positively the soil chemical properties, such as soil organic carbon and total nitrogen. Our results also highlight the importance of considering the short-term effect of cover crops on the tropical soil fertility maintenance, in this case, Regosol.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Postgraduate Program in Agronomy, Agrarian Sciences Centre, Federal University of Paraiba, Areia, Paraiba, 58397-000, Brazil

    Giliane Aparecida Vicente da Silva Souza & Elica Santos Rios

  2. Postgraduate Program in Soil Science, Department of Soils and Rural Engineering, Agrarian Sciences Centre, João Pessoa, PB, 58051-085, Brazil

    Tancredo Augusto Feitosa de Souza & Djail Santos

  3. Environmental and Agrarian Science Centre, Paraiba State University, Campina Grande, PB, 58429-500, Brazil

    Gilmara Juliana de Lima Souza

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  1. Giliane Aparecida Vicente da Silva Souza
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  2. Tancredo Augusto Feitosa de Souza
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  3. Djail Santos
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  4. Elica Santos Rios
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Correspondence to Tancredo Augusto Feitosa de Souza.

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da Silva Souza, G.A.V., de Souza, T.A.F., Santos, D. et al. Agronomic Evaluation of Legume Cover Crops for Sustainable Agriculture. Russ. Agricult. Sci. 44, 31–38 (2018). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1068367418010093

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