Soil loss due to crop harvest in Southern Brazil: effect of potato morphology
2021
Thomaz, Edivaldo L. | Bereze, Juliane
PURPOSE: Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is important to the world population’s food security. However, potato production is implicated in several environmental problems, particularly soil loss due to crop harvest (SLCH). Moreover, a knowledge bias about this process exists given that most related studies are from Europe. Most studies compare SLCH differences among tuber and root characteristics of distinct crops but not the tuber morphologies, e.g., spherical and elongated ones, within the same crop. AIMS: This study aimed to (a) estimate the SLCH in potatoes with contrasting morphologies in a very clayey soil; (b) test whether the potato morphology allied to soil moisture affects the sediment exportation. METHODS: A total of 205 potatoes from four plots were collected for morphological and sediment exportation assessments. Several morphological characteristics were measured: weight (g), volume (cm³), axis dimension (mm), concavities (the number and volume), sediment adherence (g), and soil moisture (g kg⁻¹). RESULTS: The spherical potatoes exported 1.28 kg sediment per ton⁻¹ of harvested potato, whereas the elongated ones exported 20% more sediment (1.54 kg). The harvested field with a high soil moisture content (≈ 26%) exported three times more sediment than the field with the lowest moisture content (≈ 16%). CONCLUSIONS: The SLCH measured in the study area was lower (0.062 Mg ha⁻¹ harvest⁻¹) than most values reported in the literature. In addition, the potato morphological characteristics affected soil adherence at distinct soil moisture contents. The harvesting technique can be critical to reduce the SLCH.
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