Agroeconomic Performance of a Diversified Organic Vegetable Cultivation Module with Focus on Nitrogen Balance.
agroeconomic analysis, ammonia volatilization, nutrient balance, diversified systems.
Agriculture has reached a level of development that places it in a fine line between the benefits generated by evolution and the harm caused by the intensity of exploitation of natural and social resources. Then there is the interest of consumers, producers and technicians to produce less impact, aiming for quality products, but carrying sustainable concepts in their productive trajectory. In order to meet the requirements of this new market, the bases of sustainability (social, environmental and economic) and scientific parameters of quality evaluation were implemented in 2010 at Fazendinha Agroecológica Km 47, a long-term experiment called the Diversified Cultivation Module Organic vegetables, with the hypothesis that an intensive organic crop of vegetables is sustainable under edaphoclimatic conditions of Baixada fluminense, in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Agroeconomic indexes and nutritional balances were generated every agricultural year and through the observations of the results the hypothesis was raised that there would be no great losses of nitrogen (N), a fundamental nutrient for viability in agroecological bases management. In the attempt to evaluate the gaseous losses of N and to generate unpublished scientific results in the scope of the organic systems of production a study of the gaseous losses of N-NH3 in the area of greater cultivation of vegetables of the Cultivation Module was initiated, in the agricultural cycle of 2018 / 2019. The research tools employed were: a) monitoring inputs and outputs of inputs, harvests and production system work; b) study of the volatilization of N-NH3 with the use of chambers called SALE (static free semi-open); c) analysis of temporal / spatial variability of fertility and volatilization through geostatistical techniques. The system was monetarily feasible if the annual production (15673.27 kg of food) was sold at the Carioca Fair of Organic Fairs and in the institutional market by the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). In a commercial market scenario (CEASA / RJ), even when the cost-benefit assumes a value greater than 1, considered profitable, the monthly revenue is low, reinforcing the importance of consumer awareness, diversification of marketing channels and the social organization of farmers as ways of guaranteeing fair prices. It is urgent the need for research for the technological development of inputs and alternative management practices, with low cost, impacting on the increase of profitability of the olerícola activity. The loss of N-NH3 found can be considered insignificant when compared to the use of mineral fertilizers, while in the cultivation module the nitrogen loss rate applied was slightly more than 3%, experimental trials with urea, also in sandy soils, indicate losses of up to 67.9% It is worth mentioning that in addition to being an experiment that tends towards the natural balance, the management adopted by the Cultivation Module aims at conservation practices, with great incorporation of organic matter in the soil and use of fertilizers that add greater benefits which only soil fertility.