Soil tillage for cassava cropping is tradicionally executed by a number of rowing and tillage which may result in alteration of the physical and chemical soil properties. The use of plants for green cover manure and the use of minimum tillage may contribute to reduction of soil erosion and to facilitate manual harvest. An experiment in eutrophic Oxisol, located in Marechal Cândido Rondon country state of Paraná, Brazil, was carried out to collect information on the physical soil properties, harvest effort strength and cassava productivity. Experimental design was composed by eight treatments with four repetitions on a 2x4 factorial. Were used two soil tillage (conventional and minimum) and four soil cover types: common vetch (Vicia sativa), black oat (Avena strigosa), common vetch plus black oat and bare soil. The results showed that soil density and resistance to penetration in the 0-10cm layer were higher under conventional than under minimum tillage. There were no differences for cassava harvest effort and cassava productivity between soil tillage treatments as well as among types of soil cover. No significant interaction was detected also. It is hypotesized that the results obtained are due to the fact that soil used did not have compaction, the soil had a high degree of natural fertility and there was no water stress during the experiment. Consequenthy, minimum tillage may substitute conventional tillage and reduce costs for cassava cropping.
cassava; minimum tillage; green manure
