Summary: Some regions of the Cerrado Biome present edaphoclimatic conditions restrictive to the maximum productive potential of agriculture and livestock. In these regions, experiments with crop-livestock system (CLS) show that this strategy allows the intensification of agricultural production in a sustainable manner. Rotation, intercropping and succession of crops producing grains or silage with forage species, and conservationist soil management such as no-till and correction of the soil profile favorable to root growth, allow the exploitation of the agricultural area, especially when there is a water deficit. In fifteen years of conducting the CLS, the production of agricultural crops met the demand for food and, also, provided grain yields above regional averages, and even national averages. In addition to the lower risk, the strategy adopted met internal demand and generated surplus grain and silage for commercialization, increasing income. In the temporal analysis of the CLS, the adoption of sustainable soil and crop management practices has, over time, overcome the region's edaphoclimatic limitations, in an economically viable way, based on adequate land use planning, and by the choice of appropriate combination of crops, properly aligned with the livestock activity of interest.

Publication year: 2021

Types of publication: Paper in annals and proceedings

Unit: Embrapa Maize & Sorghum