'Macaquinho' taro in monocrop system and intercropped with 'Salad Bowl' lettuce in soil with chicken manure mulching

Abstract

This work had as aim to study yield and income of 'Macaquinho' taro in monocrop system and intercropped with 'Salad Bowl' mimosa lettuce in soil without (SCF) or with (CCF) mulching with chicken manure (10 t ha-1). Lettuce harvest was done on 64 days after sowing and taro harvest on 199 days after planting. For lettuce it was obtained low values for plants with commercial heads (average of 15,830 heads ha-1) and high values for non-commercial heads (average of 89,160 heads ha-1). For taro, the highest yields of leaves (4.89 t ha-1), corms (6.46 t ha-1), commercial (15.33 t ha-1) and non-commercial (9.73 t ha-1) cormels were obtained in plants under monocrop system and that were cultivated in CCF soil. Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) for taro/lettuce intercropping, in CCF soil, was 1.47 and of intercropping in SCF soil was 1.82. Gross and net income showed that for taro it was better to use of monocrop system in CCF soil (R$ 18,936.00 and R$ 17,596.00, respectively). For lettuce, it was better to use intercrop system with taro in CCF soil (R$ 18,024.00 and 17,224.00, respectively). The highest LER did not induce the highest gross and net income.