Produtividade da cevada (Hordeum vulgare) em diferentes sistemas de cultivo

Abstract

The barley culture is being studied in Brazil in order to achieve higher grain yield, as the demand for the product is expanding with its use in animal feed and processed products for humans. In light of this, the present study aims to compare the influence of four barley cultivation systems on grain yield: conventional, organic, biodynamic, and control. The experiment was conducted in the experimental area of the Federal University of the Southern Frontier, in the municipality of Laranjeiras do Sul, Paraná, Brazil. The evaluated variables were hectoliter weight, thousand seed weight, plant height, and grain yield. The conventional, organic, and biodynamic cultivation systems did not differ from each other for all variables but differed from the control. The tallest plant height was obtained in the conventional, organic, and biodynamic cultivation systems, which differed from the control. The control and conventional treatments were the only ones that differed from each other in terms of hectoliter weight. The percentage of thousand seed weight was not influenced by the experimental treatments, as the means did not differ from each other. The highest grain yield was obtained in the conventional, biodynamic, and organic systems. The experiment demonstrated that the conventional, organic, and biodynamic systems can produce grains with suitable thousand seed weight, hectoliter weight, and productivity, without showing differences between them. This helps demystify the idea that one system may produce more and better than another, showing that barley can be produced with quality and profitability using the desired cultivation system on one's property.