In tropical regions with high rates of organic material decomposition, an alternative to supply the annual amount of straw required to provide the no tillage system sustainability is the use of intercrop of forage plants with grain crop. The present work was conducted with the objective of identify the best intercrop modality of three species of brachiaria (Brachiaria brizantha, B. decumbens and B. ruziziensis) with fall maize (row, interrow, interrow at the moment of maize coverage fertilization) in the pasture-agriculture integration system. It was used a randomized block design in a factorial scheme (3x3) with four repetitions evaluating dry weight of maize straw, dry matter of pasture straw, total dry weight of straw, 1000 grain weight and grain yield. The results showed that when the main focus of intercropping maize with pasture for grain yield and the secondary focus is the formation of straw, the use of Brachiaria ruziziensis sown at the time of maize manuring led to the highest grain yield. All treatments produced sufficient quantity of straw to maintain the stability of no tillage.
covering of the soil; agriculture-pasture integration; straw; succession of crops; Brachiaria
