Production efficiency in cultivar combinations of beet and cowpea

ABSTRACT For the simultaneous achievement of productivity in beet and cowpea associations, it is necessary to take into consideration the choice of cultivar combinations that offer a response in terms of production, product quality and efficiency of the intercropping. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the viability of production of beet cultivars combinations with cowpea cultivars in two cropping years (2016 and 2017) in a semi-arid environment. The treatments arranged in a 2 x 4 factorial scheme, with four replications, consisted of the combination of two beet cultivars (Early Wonder and Fortuna) with four cowpea cultivars (BRS Tumucumaque, BRS Cauamé, BRS Guariba and BRS Itaim), in addition to monocultures of these cultivars, as an additional treatment. The experimental design used was in randomized complete blocks. The production and its components were evaluated in the beet and cowpea. Apart from these characteristics, the following agro-economic indicators were also determined for each treatment: system productivity index (SPI), the land equivalent coefficient (LEC), and the monetary equivalent ratio (MER). The productive variables of cowpea and of the agro-economic indicators of the intercropping systems were higher in the second cropping year (2017), while the productive variables of beet were higher in the first cropping year (2016). The Early Wonder and Fortuna cultivars when in intercropping with the cowpea cultivars had similar commercial productivities of roots (11.29 and 11.93 t ha-1), respectively. The cowpea cultivar BRS Tumucumaque (1.38 t ha-1) was the most productive when intercropped with beet. The combinations of cultivars that had the highest agro-economic efficiencies and complementarity were those originated from the associations of BRS Tumucumaque (SPI = 18.43, LEC = 0.52 and MER = 1.42) and BRS Guariba (SPI = 18.42, LEC = 0.52 and MER = 1.48) with the Early Wonder beet cultivar.