Water consumption of oil palm fertigated with vinasse in the formation phase

• Grant number: 16/05994-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2016
• End date: July 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agricultural Engineering - Soil and Water Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Vinícius Folegatti
• Grantee: Marcos Vinícius Folegatti
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Bruno Patias Lena ; Eder Duarte Fanaya Júnior ; Fabio Ricardo Marin ; Felipe Gustavo Pilau ; Irineu Pedro de Sousa Andrade ; Jefferson Vieira José ; João Paulo Francisco ; Otávio Neto Almeida Santos ; Patricia Angélica Alves Marques

Abstract

The culture of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) stands out for its high oil yield, the most consumed in the world and as a promising option for the biofuels and food production in Brazil. However, due to the uneven distribution of rainfall in some regions of Brazil, oil palm crop currently has only limited in the North. Thereby, it becomes required the use of irrigation technique to complement the water needs of the crop in the occurrence of water stress periods by causing poor distribution of rains. Work aimed to identify the water demand are very important in the oil palm crop validation. This study aims to evaluate the water consumption of oil palm in drip irrigation system. The secondary objective is to determine the concentration of vinasse which provides a satisfactory development of culture without compromising on the chemical and physical characteristics of the soil. The experiment will be installed in the experimental area of the Biosystems Engineering Department, located in Areão Farm at Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz" (ESALQ / USP) in Piracicaba, São Paulo. To determine the crop evapotranspiration (ET), it is proposed to use weight lysimeters with installed culture and only the bare soil direct determination evaporation of the ground (E). The component transpiration (T) is determined from the difference between ET and E. The single crop coefficient will be determined in the treatments without application of vinasse using the ratio between crop evapotranspiration with reference evapotranspiration (ETo), and the latter estimated daily by the Penman-Monteith method. The fertigation with vinasse are performed via drip adopting the potassium with reference element. (AU)