Efficiency of nitrogen use by sesame genotypes under brazilian semi-arid conditions

ABSTRACT

Nitrogen (N) is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and rate applications can influence the performance of sesame, and when applied in excess can cause nitrogen loss in the environment, and consequently make the cost of production more costly to the producer. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the efficiency of nitrogen use by different cultivars of irrigated sesame seeds under the edaphoclimatic conditions of the northeastern semi-arid region in two harvests. The experiments were carried out from February to May (1st harvest) and from July to October (2nd harvest) in 2016. The treatments were arranged in a split plot scheme, in which the plots were the five nitrogen doses (0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 kg ha-1), and in the subplots, the four sesame genotypes (CNPA G2, CNPA G3, CNPA G4 and BRS Seda), the design was in randomized complete blocks with four replications. The nitrogen use efficiency assessments evaluated were: agronomic efficiency (AE), physiological efficiency (PE), agrophysiological efficiency (APE), recovery efficiency (RE) and efficiency of use (EU). The rate that provided the greatest efficiency of use was 30 kg ha-1 of N applied. The cultivar BRS Seda had greater efficiency of use in relation to the other cultivars studied. The crop that had better efficiency of use was the 2nd agricultural harvest.