Azospirillum brasilense and plant biostimulants associated with nitrogen fertilization on performance of Mombasa grass (Megathyrsus maximus)
tropical forage; phytoregulators; nitrogen fixing bacteria
Brazilian livestock plays an important role in the country's economy, based on the feeding of ruminants to pasture as a source of roughage. However, maintaining pastures with high dry matter productivity and nutritional quality requires care with soil nutrition, thus requiring nutrient replacement. These include nitrogen (N), which is absorbed in greater amounts and provides better yield and productivity. Nitrogen synthetic fertilizers used in fertilization are the fastest way to make nitrogen available to pastures, but there are high losses by leaching and volatilization, making the production process costly. New technologies have been employed in production systems, mainly to reduce costs and increase pasture productivity. Among the technologies employed are the use of plant growth-promoting and nitrogen-fixing bacteria, such as the bacteria of the genus Azospirillum and the use of plant biostimulants. In the genus Azospirillum, we highlight the species Azospirillum brasilense, which has biological fixative functions of atmospheric nitrogen and the production of plant hormones such as auxins, gibberellins and citicinins. Biostimulants are composed of synthetic plant hormones, containing auxins, gibberellins and cytokines that act as plant growth promoters. These alternative methods have been widely used in other crops such as corn and soybeans and have shown positive results. They may be an economically viable alternative to assist the pasture production process.