Abstract

ALVAREZ-CARRILLO, Faver; ROJAS-MOLINA, Jairo  and  SUAREZ-SALAZAR, Juan Carlos. Effect of Organic and Conventional Fertilization on the Growth and Production of Theobroma Cacao L. Under an Agroforestry System in Rivera (Huila, Colombia). Corpoica cienc. tecnol. agropecu. [online]. 2015, vol.16, n.2, pp.307-314. ISSN 0122-8706.

The impact of organic fertilizing schemes on the cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) growth and production under agroforestry systems (AFS) has been scarcely studied. In this sense, in Rivera (Huila-Colombia), the effect of different management strategies for amendment application in cocoa under agroforestry systems was evaluated. Four treatments were considered: i) conventional fertilizing or farmer fertilizing (chemical, T₁); ii) Potassium sulfate (chemical, T₂); iii) eco-cocoa + Super 4 (ECO-S4) (organical, T₃); and iv) the mixture of among the treatments with potassium sulfate + eco-cocoa (SP-ECO) (chemical + organical, T₄). Variance analysis, Fisher test (p<0.05) and principal components analysis (PCA) were used for data comparisons. For the height of cocoa plants, there was an average increase of 22.5 cm, while for stem diameter was 4.71 cm, with significant differences between the treatments. In general, an effect of the fertilizing scheme on the agronomic parameters of cocoa evaluated was found -especially for some important variables such as number of grains per pod and average weight of the grain-. There were similar parameters between the chemical and the organic treatments. This demonstrates that organic schemes of fertilizing could be an important alternative for improving cocoa production.

Keywords : Theobroma cacao; Production; Soil management; Fertilizer application; Organic fertilizers.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )