Until the 1970s, the cerrado region of Brazil was considered marginal for crop production. However, the technologies developed by scientists of the Cerrado Research Center and other research institutions have completely changed the picture. The objective of tins article is to present a summary of management technologies, already practiced by a great number of farmers, which remove low inherited soil fertility as a limiting factor for crop production. The goal is to achieve maximum economic yields (MEY) in a sustainable way in a period of 3 to 4 years. The area under cerrado (savanna) vegetation in central Brazil occupies 2.04 million square km or 23 percent of the country. It is estimated that 50 percent of this area is arable land and two-thirdscould be incorporated into agriculture/livestock/forestry production. Annual rainfall ranges from 900 to 2,000 mm, usually in the 1,000 to 1,400 mm range. The mean annual temperature is 22°C in the south of the region and 27°C in the north (Goedert, 1989). Most of the soils in this area ore highly weathered Oxisols (46 percent), Ultisols (15 percent) and Entisols (15 percent), with serious limitations for crop production in terms of low natural soil fertility.
展开▼
