Water scarcity is a problem that affects agricultural production around the world. Increasing forage production in the semiarid region is necessary to maintain animal production, and consequently food security. Different agronomic management can improve growth and productivity responses and the water-economic indexes of the crop. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate how the management of density and orientation of forage cactus plantations modify the morphophysiological indices, phenophases, cutting moment, productivity, soil water balance, and water-economic indicators in a semiarid environment. The study was carried out during two harvests (2020–2021 and 2021–2022) in the Brazilian semiarid region. Three experiments were conducted with the ‘Orelha de Elefante Mexicana’ clone under a randomized block design and four replications. Two experiments were composed of five planting densities (100,000, 50,000, 33,000, 25,000, and 20,000 plants ha) modified by the spacing between plants (0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40, and 0.50 m with a fixed distance of 1.00 m between rows), the first with East-West (EW) orientation and the second with North-South (NS) orientation. The third experiment presented four planting densities (50,000, 40,000, 33,000, and 28,571 plants ha) modified by the distance between rows (1.00, 1.25, 1.50, and 1.75 m with a fixed distance of 0.20 m between plants). Biometric and biomass data were used to determine morphophysiological indices, delimitation of phenophases, ideal cutting moment, and fresh matter (FM) and dry matter (DM) productivity. The soil water balance was carried out using soil moisture readings and the physical-water properties, and the crop's water-economic indices were calculated. In general, morphophysiological indices, phenophases, and cutting moments were affected by densities (p<0.05). DM productivity was 16 % higher in the EW orientation (27.7 Mg ha) compared to the NS orientation. The highest planting density (100,000 plants ha) in the 1.00 × 0.10 m arrangement presented the highest averages of FM and DM of the cycles, being 401.5 and 32.4 Mg ha orientation EW and 420.8 and 29.5 Mg ha orientation NS. Density of 50,000 plants ha in the 1.00 × 0.20 m arrangement (265.5 and 23.5 Mg ha of FM and DM, respectively). This same behavior occurred for water and economic indices. Therefore, higher densities in forage cactus cultivation (100,000 plants ha in the East-West planting orientation and 50,000 plants ha) must be adopted to enhance forage production in semiarid regions.

中文翻译：

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饲用仙人掌的不同密度和种植方向是否会改变半干旱地区的农艺、形态生理特征和土壤水分动态？


水资源短缺是影响世界各地农业生产的一个问​​题。增加半干旱地区的饲料产量对于维持动物生产以及粮食安全是必要的。不同的农艺管理可以改善作物的生长和生产力反应以及水经济指数。因此，本研究旨在评估半干旱环境下饲用仙人掌种植园的密度和方向管理如何改变形态生理指标、物候期、切割时刻、生产力、土壤水平衡和水经济指标。该研究是在巴西半干旱地区的两次收获期间（2020-2021 年和 2021-2022 年）进行的。在随机区组设计下用“Orelha de Elefante Mexicana”克隆进行了三项实验并进行了四次重复。两个实验由五种种植密度（100,000、50,000、33,000、25,000 和 20,000 株公顷）组成，并根据株距（0.10、0.20、0.30、0.40 和 0.50 m，行间固定距离为 1.00 m）进行修改。 ，第一个为东西 (EW) 方向，第二个为南北 (NS) 方向。第三个实验提出了四种种植密度（50,000、40,000、33,000 和 28,571 株公顷），并根据行间距（1.00、1.25、1.50 和 1.75 m，株间固定距离为 0.20 m）进行修改。生物统计和生物量数据用于确定形态生理指数、物候期界定、理想切割时刻以及鲜物质 (FM) 和干物质 (DM) 生产力。利用土壤湿度读数和物理水特性进行土壤水平衡，并计算作物的水经济指数。 一般来说，形态生理指数、物候期和切割时刻受密度影响(p<0.05)。与 NS 方向相比，EW 方向的 DM 生产率高 16%（27.7 Mg ha）。 1.00 × 0.10 m 排列中的最高种植密度（100,000 株公顷）呈现出循环中最高的 FM 和 DM 平均值，分别为 401.5 和 32.4 Mg ha 方向 EW 和 420.8 和 29.5 Mg ha 方向 NS。 1.00 × 0.20 m 排列的 50,000 株植物的密度（FM 和 DM 分别为 265.5 和 23.5 Mg ha）。水和经济指数也出现了同样的现象。因此，半干旱地区必须采用较高的饲用仙人掌种植密度（东西向种植10万公顷，5万公顷）来提高半干旱地区的饲草产量。