Nutrient balance in sugarcane in Brazil: diagnosis, use and application in modern agriculture
Leila C. da Silva, Fernando José Freire, Gilson Moura Filho, Emídio Cantídio Almeida de Oliveira, Maria Betânia G. dos S. Freire, Adriano Barboza Moura, José Valdemir Tenório da Costa, Jefrejan Souza Rezende
Abstract
Sugarcane extracts high amounts of nutrients from the soil to express high yields. Knowing the fertility of the soil and the nutritional status of the crop are essential to guide the application of fertilizers. This represents one of the pillars of Agriculture 4.0, which is to establish an adequate nutritional balance. The aim of the study was to determine, interpret and compare nutritional diagnoses that establish critical levels or critical ranges of nutrients for sugarcane comparing simple and traditional methods used in Brazil with complex methods such as diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (DRIS), modified DRIS (M-DRIS) and composition nutrient diagnosis (CND). A total of 183 sugarcane plots were sampled in the region of Coruripe/AL, and the contents of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, B, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn were determined. Posteriorly was determined the optimal range of nutrients by DRIS, M-DRIS and CND methods and compared with reference values in the literature. Nutritional diagnoses of more complex methods were different from simpler and traditional ones, suggesting an update optimal ranges of nutrients for sugarcane using methods such as DRIS, M-DRIS and CND. The regionalization of the application of these methods must be essential to guarantee their efficiency.