ABSTRACT
The Agroforestry Systems (SAFs) bring multiple benefits and they are an alternative to minimize environmental degradation, and to achieve a sustainable development, due to greatest diversity of species. This study evaluated the contribution of the leguminous trees, gliricídia sepium andAcacia angustissima, grown in alley cropping of banana (Musa sp.) and "açaí" palm (Euterpe oleraceae) used as green manure in the implantation of an Agroforestry Systems. They were compared the production of biomass, nutrients cycling, nitrogen intake, activity and diversity of soil fauna, and banana productivity in the SAF, and with the usage of the legume Pueraria phaseoloides and nitrogen fertilization. The SAF implantation occurred in May 2004, at the Research Center of Embrapa Agrobiologia, in Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro State. The following year it was planted the forest African mahogany specie (Kaya senegalensis), at the centre of the legumes alleys. The experimental design was of randomized blocks with five treatments and four repetitions. The treatments consisted of the leguminous trees arranged between the lines of bananas and the "açaí" palm, and they were: acacia angustíssima (Acacia angustissima), tropical kudzu (Pueraria phaseoloides), and gliricídia (Gliricídia sepium); besides application of nitrogen as urea and spontaneous vegetation. To quantify the production of biomass, and the release of N, P, Ca, Mg and K, the legumes branches were cut and the kudzu tropical and spontaneous vegetation were mowed, in the rainy and dry seasons. The determination of remaining dry matter, releasing of nutrients, decomposition rates, and half life time of plant residues were held to 50 grams of fresh material from litterbags, placed on the soil surface, sampled at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 60 and 75 days after the installation of the experiment. Acacia angustissima and kudzu tropical showed higher dry biomass, 9.5 and 10.8 Mg ha-1, respectively. The gliricídia residues showed the highest decomposition rates, in the two year seasons.
Keywords:
alley cropping; green manure; Musa sp