Agricultura sem queima: o uso de triturador de médio porte no preparo de área na agricultura familiar.

Abstract

The environmental crisis linked to climate change and global warming demands the adoption of measures that address the concerns of the population. Among these measures, the need to reassess the use of natural resources stands out. In the agricultural context, fire-free farming emerges as an essential alternative to avoid the use of fire in family farming, where this practice still persists. The Tipitamba project conducts studies to make land preparation in family farming in the Northeast region of Pará less aggressive to the environment, focusing on the sustainable management of forest regrowth without fire, using forest biomass crushers. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the performance of a medium-sized crusher in the crushing of forest biomass, assessing the biomass crushing yield, the quality of the crushed material, and crop performance. The research was carried out in Igarapé-Açu and Marapanim, municipalities in the northeastern region of Pará that are prominent in agricultural production, with incentives for small producers and family farming. For forest crushing, the medium-sized Ecotritus HL240 crusher from Himev was used. The evaluation of the crushing yield was carried out through the collection of crushed biomass on family farmers' properties, in forests of varying sizes and characteristics. The quality of the crushed material was assessed through a screening system, using three sieves: 7mm, 25mm, and 35mm. To evaluate agricultural crop performance, the cultivation of corn, cowpea, and cassava was analyzed, considering the production of these crops in an area prepared with the medium-sized crusher, with spacings of 1.0m x 0.5m for corn and cowpea, and 1.0m x 1.0m for cassava, with three treatments: T1: corn, T2: corn + cassava, T3: corn + cowpea + cassava, evaluating the productivity of each crop. From this, we obtained the result for the crushing yield with an average of 22.00 t/ha of biomass and consumption of 74.39 L/ha, in 9 hours and 34 minutes. The results for the material quality were as follows: from the total amount of dried crushed biomass, approximately 69.47 t/ha, and using sieves, larger amounts of material were found in the <7mm class corresponding to 44.81 t/ha, followed by the >35mm material with 26.72 t/ha. Materials of larger size are important as long-term nutrient sources, while those of smaller size <7mm are absorbed more quickly. The average results for production were: corn T1: 2.33 t/ha, T2: 3.56 t/ha, and T3: 3.36 t/ha, for cowpea 1.14 t/ha, for cassava T2: 8.62 t/ha and T3: 9.00 t/ha. With the results presented, we can observe the good performance of the Ecotritus HL240 crusher, good efficiency in crushing, and possibilities to meet family farmers who have forests up to 5 years old.