**5. Final remarks**

There have been strong droughts and short-time droughts in rainy season in the main coffee producing regions of Brazil. Although most of the soils used are deep and capable of storing a large volume of water, these soils have a small effective depth for the development of the root system due to severe chemical limitations, therefore causing a yield gap.

Brazilian researchers have studied ways to overcome this problem, such as selecting drought tolerant plants. However, a strategy that has attracted the attention of farmers is the adoption of soil management systems that provide the best development of the coffee root system, with chemical and physical adequacy of soils. Deep tillage, maintenance of intercropped Brachiaria in the coffee plant interrow and additional gypsum play important roles in this management system. This is relevant information given that the interactions between soil and root have been considered as key elements for the maximization of crop production. Therefore, the set of practices previously mentioned in this chapter has alleviated the soil limitations caused by droughts, root growth and, consequently, the development of productive coffee trees.

**39**

Brazil

**Author details**

Bruno Montoani Silva1

Carla Eloize Carducci3

Laura Beatriz Batista de Melo1

Thiago Henrique Pereira Reis<sup>5</sup>

and Paulo Tácito Gontijo Guimarães5

*Soil Management and Water-Use Efficiency in Brazilian Coffee Crops*

\*, Geraldo César de Oliveira1

2 Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of MatoGrosso, Brazil

4 Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Southern Minas Gerais,

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

3 Department of Agriculture, Federal University of Grande Dourados, Brazil

, Walbert Junior Reis dos Santos4

, César Henrique Caputo de Oliveira5

, Érika Andressa da Silva1

1 Department of Soil Science, Federal University of Lavras, Brazil

5 Agricultural Research Company of Minas Gerais (Epamig), Brazil

\*Address all correspondence to: brunom.silva@ufla.br

provided the original work is properly cited.

, Milson Evaldo Serafim<sup>2</sup>

,

, Samara Martins Barbosa1

,

,

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89558*

*Soil Management and Water-Use Efficiency in Brazilian Coffee Crops DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89558*
