Development of tree species in an agroforest system in Nova Xavantina, Mato Grosso, Central Brazil

As the arrangement of the species is fundamentally important to guarantee the effectiveness of agroforestry systems, it is important to test different combinations of species with varying levels of economic potential. The study was based on the analysis of the initial development of an agroforestry system formed by native tree species and other plants of economic interest, intercropped with green manure species under the edaphoclimatic conditions of Nova Xavantina in Mato Grosso, central Brazil. The study was conducted in an experimental plot on the Nova Xavantina campus of Mato Grosso State University. The plot was arranged in randomized blocks, in a simple agroforestry system of the alley type, with the plants arranged in rows, in a 4x2 factorial design (four fruit species x two legumes). The fruiting species included five trees – Bixa orellana, Spondias lutea, Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) Rich, Pouteria ramiflora, and Theobroma grandiflorum, and the banana, Musa sp. (the “BRS Princesa” cultivar). Two combinations of legume species were tested – (i) Cajanus cajan and Vigna unguiculata,and (ii) Mucuna aterrima and Canavalia ensiformis. Tree growth was assessed based on four phytometric parameters – plant height, stem diameter, the number of leaves, and percentage survival, while for Musa, the parameters were height and pseudostem circumference, and the number of active leaves and shoots. Bixa orellana and S. lutea were the species best adapted to the edaphoclimatic conditions found in the experimental plot, with all (100%) of the Bixa plants surviving throughout the study, and a survival rate of over 70% in S. lutea.