Economic indicators of nitrogen fertilization in sunflower cultivars

Abstract

Sunflower is one of the most important oilseeds in the world. However, cultivation in semi-arid regions requires analysis of production costs and profitability, ensuring effective decision-making, focused on farming procedures and techniques. In two agricultural crops, 2016 and 2017, experiments were conducted to evaluate the economic indicators of sunflower cultivars (‘Aguará 06’, ‘Altis 99’, ‘Multissol’ and ‘BRS 122’) submitted to nitrogen (N) doses (0; 30; 60; 90 and 120 kg ha^-1) via fertirrigation under semi-arid conditions. The net margin corresponded to the increase of N doses, reaching a maximum net margin in the 2016 harvest of R$ 366.89 ha^-1 at the dose of 81 kg ha^-1 of N for ‘BRS 122’; R$ 577.41 ha^-1 with 118 kg ha^-1 of N for ‘Multissol’; and for ‘Aguará 06’ (R$ 2,124.00 ha^-1) and ‘Altis 99’ (R$ 976.66 ha^-1) at the dose of 120 kg ha^-1 of N. In the 2017 harvest, ‘BRS 122’ obtained R$ 190.90 ha^-1 in the dose of 83 kg ha^-1 of N and ‘Multissol’ reached R$ 657.50 in the dose of 85 kg ha^-1 of N; the cultivars ‘Aguará 06’ (R$ 1,078.00 ha^-1) and ‘Altis 99’ (R$ 957.14 ha^-1) in the dose of 120 kg ha^-1 of N. The rate of return and the profitability index were positive for all cultivars in both crops.