Production and profitability of crop rotation systems in southern Brazil

Crop rotation is one of the pillars of conservation agriculture. This practice has offered a series of advantages in terms of improving soil physical, chemical, and biological conditions. These advantages result in yield increases for all economic crops involved in the rotation systems and may also reduce production costs. In this context, the aim of this study was to compare the profitability of crop rotation systems with different levels of crop diversification. The experimental design was randomized blocks, with five treatments and four replications. The treatments included one less diversified crop rotation system (control) with soybean and wheat and four more diversified crop rotation systems (involving three or more species), including soybean, wheat, black oats, maize, canola, barley, blue lupine, white oats, beans, radish, triticale, rye, hairy vetch, and sorghum, under no-tillage conducted during a three-year cycle. Analyses were conducted considering productivity, operating cost, and economic profit. The highest accumulated gross yields were obtained in the more diversified crop rotation systems. The results show that the more diversified crop rotation systems were more profitable. When the opportunity cost was included, the most diversified crop rotations presented greater economic feasibility. The less diversified crop rotation system presented a negative economic profit. The crop rotation systems including beans presented the highest economic profit.