Cultural management strategies in peanuts grown in the Western São Paulo region: Tools for regenerative, resilient, and sustainable agriculture

• Grant number: 24/03957-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2025
• End date: September 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Shintate Galindo
• Grantee: Fernando Shintate Galindo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Tecnológicas. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Dracena. Dracena , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Carolina dos Santos Batista Bonini ; Diego Cunha Zied ; Evandro Pereira Prado ; Paulo Humberto Pagliari ; Paulo Renato Matos Lopes ; Reges Heinrichs ; Ronaldo Cintra Lima ; Samuel Ferrari ; Vagner do Nascimento

Abstract

Brazilian agriculture will need to reinvent itself in areas once considered marginal due to low natural soil fertility, high temperatures, and water deficits throughout agricultural crop cycles, as seen in the Western São Paulo region. Situated in a strategic location, close to important producing states such as Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, Goiás, and Minas Gerais, and nestled within the state with the most developed industrial park in the country, the Western São Paulo region, formerly known as the 'corridor of hunger,' presents significant potential for agricultural expansion with opportunities for economic and social development in the region, state, and country. Considering the demands, challenges, and emerging potentialities in Brazilian agriculture, this project aims to study cultural management strategies in peanuts, aiming to promote research and development of sustainable agriculture to address the challenges of practicing agriculture in the face of climate change in a region that is strategic for national food security and has great potential for human and agro-industrial development, notably in the peanut production chain. The central theme focused on peanut cultivation linked to crop production meets the productive demands of the Western São Paulo region, with the recent expansion of annual crop cultivation, particularly peanuts in the renovation of sugarcane fields and degraded pastures. Understanding that, for the purpose of evaluating the request for Regular Research Aid, proper research projects are necessary, we have listed alongside this proposal 2 initial research subprojects to compose the first cycle of activities of the regular research aid: Subproject 1 - Use of plant growth-promoting microorganisms in no-till or conventional planting: Tools for sustainable optimization of peanut crop production in the Nova Alta Paulista region: The aim of this sub-proposal is to evaluate the effect of co-inoculations with plant growth-promoting microorganisms on the growth, development, and productivity of peanuts in conventional or no-till soil management. The research will be conducted in the municipality of Dracena - SP, in a typical dystrophic Red Argisol with sandy texture. The experiment will be conducted in randomized blocks with four replications and 18 treatments, arranged in a 9 × 2 factorial scheme: Control - no inoculation; Co-control - inoculation only with Bradyrhizobium sp.; Inoculation with Bradyrhizobium sp. + A. brasilense; Inoculation with Bradyrhizobium sp. + Bacillus aryabhattai; Inoculation with Bradyrhizobium sp. + Trichoderma harzianum; Bradyrhizobium sp. + A. brasilense + B. aryabhattai; Bradyrhizobium sp. + A. brasilense + T. harzianum; Bradyrhizobium sp. + B. aryabhattai + T. harzianum; and Bradyrhizobium sp. + A. brasilense + B. aryabhattai + T. harzianum; in conventional tillage or no-till planting into the mulch of a degraded pasture. All treatments will be applied as a spray over the entire area at the beginning of vegetative development, 10 days after emergence (V1/V2). Leaf chlorophyll index (LCI), gas exchange parameters (IRGA), dry mass in aerial and root parts at the beginning of peg development (R2), and dry mass of aerial parts, production components, grain yield in hull and without hull, and grain yield at the end of the cycle (R8-R9), as well as nitrogen accumulation in aerial parts and grains, will be evaluated. Additionally, soil physical analyses will be performed at the peanut crop harvest. Total soil porosity, macro and microporosity, soil density, and mechanical penetration resistance will be determined. Subproject 2 - Influence of inoculation and co-inoculation with plant growth-promoting microorganisms associated or not with irrigation management on peanut cultivation in degraded pasture renovation: The objective is to evaluate the influence of inoculations and co-inoculations combined with irrigation management on the growth and productivity of peanuts in sandy soil, aimin (AU)