The accelerate soil erosion constitutes an important process of agricultural land quality degradation. Often, only the physical soil losses are assessed, neglecting the economical effects of those losses, which could be estimated by applying methods of economical valuation. This work intended to apply the Replacement Cost method to evaluate economically the nutrient losses by erosion from a Rhodic Hapludox. Data concerning soil and nutrient losses were analyzed from two experiments performed in Campinas (SP. In Experiment I (1990-1996), eight treatments were tested, one for each experimental parcel, and the repetitions were the years. In Experiment II (2003-2005), two treatments were tested with four replications, for two growing seasons. In Experiment I, significant differences between treatments occurred in relation to soil and nutrient losses. The "no-tillage" was the best treatment to control the soil erosion losses, whereas the "plowing downhill" was the worst treatment. Apparently, the soil erosion losses didn't affect the corn yields, because differences between treatments were not statistically significant. Also, no significant differences were found between treatments in relation to the costs of nutrient replacement. The differences between treatments of Experiment II were not significant for any analyzed attribute, maybe due to a residual effect from treatments of Experiment I (previous). The Replacement Cost method can be applied as an indicator on the evaluation of the sustainability of soil management systems. However, in long-term experiments, the annual variation of prices of fertilizers and labor could mask the effects of the treatment themselves.
Erosion-Productivity Relationship; No-tillage system; Soil loss; Nutrients losses by erosion
