UNIVERSITY OF SÃO PAULO CENTER FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY IN AGRICULTURE JOAQUIM JOSÉ FRAZÃO Agronomic effectiveness of a poultry litter-derived organomineral phosphate fertilizer in maize and soybean Piracicaba

FRAZÃO, J. J. Agronomic effectiveness of a poultry litter-derived organomineral phosphate fertilizer in maize and soybean. 2017. 65 p. Tese (Doutorado) – Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Universidade de São Paulo, Piracicaba, 2017. Most soils in the world have low phosphate (P) availability, especially in tropical regions where most soils are highly weathered and rich in strong P adsorbents such as iron and aluminium sesquioxides, which limit the plant growth. Thus, large amounts of P fertilizers have been applied annually on crops to meet P requirements, which have declined the world’s mineral P reserves.On the other hand, large amounts of P can be recycled from organic wastes like poultry litter (PL). However, inadequate disposal of PL on soil surface promotes environmental contamination (e.g., eutrophication). In this context, the use of PL to produce organomineral P fertilizers (OMF) represents a suitable alternative to recycle P from PL and reduce the dependence on mineral P reserves. In this study, we carried out a pot and a field experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of a granular PL-derived OMF in maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.).The pot experiment was conducted in a greenhouse arranged in a completely randomized design with 2x4+1 factorial treatments with four replications. We tested OMF against triple superphosphate (TSP) at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mg P kg -1 in two contrasting soils in term of P adsorption capacity (PAC): a clayey Oxisol and a sandy Entisol. In the soil with high PAC (Oxisol), granular OMF was as effective as TSP, but in the Entisol, TSP promoted higher P uptake and higher fertilizer P recovery than OMF. Thus, the agronomic effectiveness of OMF is dependent on the P adsorption capacity of soil. With respect to the field trial, we used a randomized complete block with 2x4+1 factorial treatments and four replications. The soil is classified as Ultisol. The factors corresponded to two P sources (OMF and single superphosphate, SSP) and five P rates: 0, 17.5, 35, 52.5 and 70 kg P ha -1 for maize and, 0, 13, 26, 39 and 52 kg P ha -1 for soybean. There was no difference between OMF and SSP on the shoot dry weight (SDW) and grain yields. Similar trend was observed for plant P uptake.Additionally, OMF had a significant higher relative agronomic effectiveness (RAE) based on the SDW compared to SSP. Furthermore, OMF also had a higher RAE based on the P uptake than SSP in maize and a higher RAE based on the grain yield in soybean. Thus, we conclude that OMF is an effective substitute to conventional P fertilizers and, at the same time contributes to reducingenvironmental contamination associated to inadequate disposal of PL.