Work on green manure is launched by Embrapa with free access

The 2nd edition of the book on Green Fertilization and Cover Plants in Brazil, in two volumes, was edited by Embrapa, revised and updated and “can be considered the most complete on the subject in the world”, states one of the books' technical editors, Oscar Fontão de Lima Filho, from Embrapa Hortaliças (Brasília, DF) who, in the 1st edition, was a researcher at Embrapa Agropecuária Oeste (Dourados, MS).

The 1st edition, from 2014, was printed and is sold out. This time, both volumes are available free of charge on the Embrapa website. Volumes 1 and 2 of “Green manure and cover crops in Brazil – Fundamentals and practices” can be accessed, respectively, through the available links here  e here. The content of the book is the responsibility of Embrapa Agropecuária Oeste and has five technical editors and more than 80 authors from different Brazilian institutions, 26 chapters and more than a thousand pages between the two books.

The publications present the history of green manure, concepts and modalities of green manure, detailed description and management of species, nutritional and soil fertility aspects, physical aspects of the soil, plant health, use in various crops and ecosystems. "Anyway, it is a complete work, not a definitive one, as knowledge only increases over time, but today it is the state of the art on green manure and cover crops, written by people with high technical capacity and knowledge", says Lima Son.

José Aparecido Donizeti Carlos, another of the five technical editors of the work, agronomist and managing partner of the company Sementes Piraí, says that the books have the distinction of being a “repository of all the knowledge about green manure in Brazil in a completely updated way”. Regarding green manure, he says that it “is here to stay with significant results in its use. And scientific work is always very positive.”

The general head of Embrapa Agropecuária Oeste, Harley Nonato de Oliveira, the participation of several institutions makes available to the academic community, technical assistance and rural extension agents and the public interested in agronomic science, the state of the art on green fertilizers . “Embrapa Agropecuária Oeste and partner institutions hope with this initiative to contribute to the sustainability of agriculture, for the benefit of society, as well as to achieve the goal of guaranteeing sustainable food production systems and implementing resilient agricultural practices, which increase productivity and production, foreseen in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 02 of the UN 2030 Agenda”, he states. And he remembers that green fertilizers, when incorporated into different production systems, can bring benefits to agroecosystems, contributing to the sustainability of production, mainly considering the lower demand for inputs.