Agroeconomic response of inoculated common bean as affected by nitrogen application along the growth cycle

Abstract

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is an alternative for the supply of N, aiming at reducing production costs and environmental impacts of common bean crops. This work aimed to evaluate the agroeconomic performance of the inoculated common bean subjected to N-fertilizer application at different phenological phases. N-fertilizer, in a total of 90 kg ha-1 as urea, was applied at 3 phases: planting (P), phenological phase V4 (V4), and phenological phase R5 (R5) of the common bean, in two field experiments. The used treatments were: P0V40R50, P0V445R545, P0V490R50, P0V40R590, P30V430R530, P30V460R50, P30V40R560, P60V430R50, P60V40R530, and P90V40R50. All treatments were inoculated with peat inoculum containing the commercial strain SEMIA 4077 (Rhizobium tropici). The number of nodules (NN), nodule dry mass (NDM), leaf area index (LAI), root dry mass (RDM), shoot dry mass (SDM), grain yield (GY), production cost (PC), gross revenue (GR), net revenue (NR), and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) were determined. Inoculated treatment (P0V40R50) showed higher NN and NDM. Although inoculated treatment (P0V40R50) showed lower values of LAI, RDM, SDM, and GY, inoculation can result in GR, NR, and BCR equal to N-fertilized treatments, depending on the prices achieved for grains sale.