Agroeconomic yield of Taro clones in function of number of hilling operation

Abstract

More than 800 species of Araceae have economic (ornamental, edible or medicinal) or ethnobotanic importance, and about 10% of the world population use taro rhizome (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) in feeding. The agroeconomic yield of Chinês and Macaquinho taro clones was evaluated, when cultivated without hilling operation and under one hilling at 58 days after planting – DAP, and under two hillings, at 58 and 86 DAP, in the environment conditions of Dourados-MS. Harvest was carried at 202 DAP, when agronomic and economic analysis were performed. ‘Chinês’ taro plants presented 123.5% and 86.9% higher results for fresh and dry weight of leaves, respectively, when compared to Macaquinho clone. Fresh weight of corms-RM, commercial cormel-RFC and noncommercial cormel-RFNC of ‘Macaquinho’ taro plants were respectively 24.9%, 193.8% and 19.4% statistically superiors than ‘Chinês’ taro plants. There was no significant difference of treatments among hilling operations on fresh and dry weight productions of RM, RFC and RFNC. Comparing net incomes, Macaquinho clone plants had better results when grown under two hilling operations, inducing increases of R$ 6,784.6 and R$ 11,181.2 for cultivation with one hilling and without it, respectively.