Effects of harvesting sugarcane without burning on the dynamic of carbon and soil properties

• Grant number: 98/12648-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: January 01, 1999
• End date: June 30, 2001
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Christian Leon Feller
• Grantee: Christian Leon Feller
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In the next few years the practice of burning sugar plantations aimed at facilitating harvest operations will be totally eliminated in the state de São Paulo, as established by State Law Decree n° 42.056. With the method of sugarcane harvest without prior burning of the plantation, a large quantity of organic matter from the exposed part of the crop can be maintained in the system, deposited on the soil, and act positively against agents that cause erosion, provide nutrients for the plants and increase the stock of organic matter in the soil, with consequences for the physical, chemical and biological conditions of the soil and on the sequestration of carbon in the system. The objective in this study is to proceed to an evaluation of the contribution of the method of no-burn sugarcane harvest on the sequestration of the organic matter of the soil and the consequences on its principal attributes. Three factors of influence in the parameters of interest will be studied: the time taken to establish the no-burn method of harvest, the type of soil where the crop was established and the management of the crop residue, with reference to the quality and quantity of material deposited on the soil. The first factor will be studied in a commercial plantation established on an eutrophic dusky-red oxisol, forming a chronosequence which varies from one to five years of establishment of this method of harvest. And the factors of type of soils and management of the organic matter will be studied in agronomic trials established in red latosol, podzolic red-yellow and quartzy sand. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CERRI, CARLOS CLEMENTE; MAIA, STOECIO MALTA FERREIRA; GALDOS, MARCELO VALADARES; PELLEGRINO CERRI, CARLOS EDUARDO; FEIGL, BRIGITTE JOSEFINE; BERNOUX, MARTIAL. Emissões de gases do efeito estufa do Brasil: importância da agricultura e pastagem. Scientia Agricola, v. 66, n. 6, p. 831-843, 2009. (98/12648-3)

RAZAFIMBELO‚ T.; BARTHÈS‚ B.; LARRÉ-LARROUY‚ M.C.; LUCA‚ E.F.D.; LAURENT‚ J.Y.; CERRI‚ C.C.; FELLER‚ C.. Effect of sugarcane residue management (mulching versus burning) on organic matter in a clayey Oxisol from southern Brazil. AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT, v. 115, n. 1, p. 285-289, 2006. (98/12648-3)