Performance of the Cratylia argentea (Desv.) Kuntze Forage Banks in Degraded Soils in the Casanare Province

Abstract

<p>Extreme drought or rainy seasons affect the efficiency in the stockbreeding systems whose forage production is based on the grass monoculture. These species are more vulnerable to the extreme climate conditions, which requires looking for alternative plants with higher resistance to these conditions. This work studied the Cratylia argentea performance in forage banks used in degraded soils with high amounts of agrochemicals in areas of tropical rainforest. The study took one year and was conducted in the estate Matapantano, located in Yopal, Casanare (Colombia). The effect on the physical-chemical properties and macrofauna in this soil, the green forage and dry mass production, the leaf-stalk relationship, the nutritional quality of both fractions (leaf-stalk) and the whole plant were studied. A random design and the software Infostat® were used for the descriptive statistics and the non-parametric variance analysis. The soil showed increases in the contents of minerals, organic mass, organic carbon and macrofauna. Differences were observed in the dry mass production from the plant fractions (p < 0.0001), in the dry mass production between cuts (p < 0.0001) and in the leaf-stalk relationship (p < 0.0001). The forage showed a good nutritional quality and the leaves were the fraction with best quality. C. argentea resisted the extreme changes in the climate conditions. It is concluded that the studied species has a good potential for the recovery of degraded soils with intense use of agrochemicals as it produced good quality forage to feed animals in stockbreeding systems, even in the drought season</p>