Effects of cover crop species on soil quality and maize yield

ABSTRACT The environmental impacts of agriculture have attracted considerable attention in recent years. Management practices such as the no-tillage system (NTS) can mitigate these impacts by enhancing soil biological activity, resulting in greater yield and resilience. This study evaluated the agronomic performance of summer-sown maize and soil quality indices under NTS with different cover crops in a crop rotation system. The experiment was conducted on a Latossolo Vermelho Distroférrico tipico in Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, under NTS during the 2021 fall-winter through the 2022/2023 summer seasons, totaling two summer and two fall-winter crop cycles. The experimental design was a randomized block with five treatments conducted during the second season: an intercropping system composed of Crotalaria ochroleuca + pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) + buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) + signal grass (Urochloa brizantha), and the sole cropping of niger (Guizotia abyssinica), Crotalaria spectabilis, common vetch (Vicia sativa L.), and forage radish (Raphanus sativus L.), with four replications. Plant height, first cob insertion height, stem diameter, cob diameter and length, number of grains per cob, 1000-grain weight, and grain yield were evaluated at maize harvest. The treatments did not influence maize yield components. However, the activities of the arylsulfatase and β-glucosidase enzymes were affected by the crop rotation model, indicating that the adopted management contributed to improving soil biological quality. It is concluded that, based on crop rotation, NTS enhances soil biological quality and promotes the long-term sustainability of maize production.