Lime and fertilizer experiments on cerrado vegetation in the Federal District

Abstract

Serub savannah vegetation covers a large area of the land in the Federal District. Some agricultural products are being produced in the humic latosols, in areas previously in forest and on hydromorphic soils that were drained and irrigated. However, until recently, no production was obtained on the various latosols covered by savannah growth. A two year lime and fertilizer study was conducted at five locations representing the cerrado areas of the Federal District. The fertilizers used were N, P, K, S, Zn, B and Mo and the test crops were corn and soybean. The applications of the lime and fertilizer resulted in obtaining hight levels of productions of both of the test crops. It is suggested that the costs of the very high rates of phosphorus and zinc applied during the initial application be prorated over several years, similar to the costa of lime. The two-year average annual increases for lime application were 821 kg per hectare of corn and 415 kg per hectare of soybean. Complete fertilization resulted in an annual increase of 4950 kg per hectare of corn and 1810 kg per hectare of soybeans.