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Crop rotation associated with the use of cover crops promotes the introduction of crop residues to the soil, with direct and indirect effects on theavailability of plant nutrients, especially nitrogen (N). The objectivesof this study wereto estimate the N utilization from15N-ureaand cover crop residues (labelled with 15N)of maizecropsgrown in succession,andevaluate the effectsof the isolated and combined use of cover crops and urea on maize plant height, yield components,andgrain yield, grownunderano-tillage system. Field researchwas conductedin anOxisol (Rhodic Haplustox), Cerrado (Savannah) phase. The experimental design was a randomized block with 20 treatments and four replications in a 5x4 factorial scheme. The treatments were four cover cropsspecies: sunnhemp (Crotalaria juncea L.), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan(L.) Millsp), green velvetbean (Mucuna prurens),and millet (Pennisetum glaucumL.) + spontaneous vegetation (fallow in the off-season),combined with four N rates: 0, 30, 90,and 150 kg ha-1, applied at the sowing and topdressingstages. The results showed that legume covercropsprovided maize grain yieldsequivalent tothe applicationof 80-108 kg ha-1N as urea. TheureaN utilizationby the maize was at an averageof43.5% of the appliedamount.The results indicatethat cover crops, particularly legume cover crops,are an important source of N to non-legume cereals.Legumes used as cover crops can replace nitrogen fertilizers of more than 80 kg ha, which is both environmentally and economically viable for corn production. Made available in DSpace on 2020-11-07T09:13:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AJCS-Article-2020-1.pdf: 1000820 bytes, checksum: 6a8dc85d340a4761772e6853c369f511 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2020

The use of green manures (GMs) in combination with nitrogen (N) fertilizer application is a promising practice to improve N fertilizer management in agricultural production systems. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the N use efficiency (NUE) of rice plant, derived from GMs including sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea L.), millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) and urea in the greenhouse. The experimental treatments included two GMs (sunn hemp-15N and millet-15N), absence of N organic source (without GM residues in soil) and four N rates, as urea-15N (0, 28.6, 57.2 and 85.8 mg N kg-1). The results showed that both rice grain and straw biomass yields under sunn hemp were greater than that of millet or without the application of GM. The NUE of rice under sunn hemp was greater than that under millet (18.9 and 7.8% under sunn hemp and millet, respectively). The urea N application rates did not affect the fertilizer NUE by rice (53.7%) with or without GMs. The NUE of GMs by rice plants ranged from 14.1% and 16.8% for root and shoot, respectively. The study showed that green manures can play an important role in enhancing soil fertility and N supply to subsequent crops. Key words: Oryza sativa L., sunn hemp, millet, isotopic diluition, nitrogen mineralization.