For commercial soybean production, the presence of phosphorus in the soil is essential, not only to increase productivity but also because it affects basic functions in plant metabolism. Phosphate fertilizers have low efficiency in Cerrado soils. For this reason, the use of technologies associated with phosphate fertilizers is important to increase their efficiency in the soil. The experiment was conducted at Fazenda Rio Brilhante in Coromandel, MG. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design in a 4 × 4 + 1 factorial arrangement. Treatments consisted of four phosphate fertilizer sources (MAPCONVENCIONAL, MAPpol 1, MAPpol 2, and FOM), four P2O5 doses (40, 80, 120, and 160 kg ha-1), and the control treatment (no phosphorus application). The soybean cultivar RK8115 IPRO with a plant population of 340 thousand plants per hectare was used. The experimental plots consisted of five planting lines with a spacing of 0.5 meters and a length of 7 meters. In the experiment, phosphorus leaf, morphological evaluation of plant height, stem diameter, number of stems, and pods were measured. For plant biomass, the dry matter of leaves, stems, and pods were determined. For yield evaluation, the calculation of productivity and RAE was compared with MAPCONVENCIONAL. For sources, data were subjected to analysis of variance, and means were separated by Tukey’s rate test (p < 0.05). For P2O5 doses, regression model fitting was performed using the ExpDes.pt package of R Studio software. Morphological assessments responded linearly to P doses, except for DPM. Leaves and pods P content and yield were affected by P dosage and P sources, with a quadratic response to P dosage. Maximum yield efficiency was achieved at P2O5 doses of 122.73; 145.07; 112.03; and 94.71 kg ha-1, with yields of 3818.30; 4064.67; 4089.03; and 3952.63 kg ha-1 for MAPCONVENCIONAL, MAPpol 2, MAPpol 1, and FOM, respectively. However, MAPpol 1 and FOM provided a dose reduction of 26 and 15 compared to the maximum yield of MAPCONVENCIONAL, respectively.

Phosphate fertilization is an important tool for achieving high yields in soybean, especially in tropical soils where phosphate fertilization efficiency is low. Fertilizers with improved efficiency, such as polymer-coated fertilizers, are one of several strategies to increase P fertilization efficiency. The objective of this study was to evaluate plant growth, leaf P content, soybean yield, and P fertilization efficiency in different seasons in response to P rates and sources. A factorial experiment (2 x 4) + 1 using two P sources (monoammonium phosphate (MAP) and Policote-coated MAP), four P rates (40, 80, 120, and 160 kg P2O5 ha-1), and the control (no P fertilization) was conducted with soybean in the 2016-2020 seasons. Phosphate fertilization increased soybean yield and was affected by P rates and sources. Soybean yield increased from 1464.7 kg ha-1, 468.4 kg ha-1, and 2297.3 kg ha-1 without P fertilization to 3,638.5 kg ha-1, 3,682.1 kg ha-1, and 3,856.7 kg ha-1, respectively, when MAP was applied at 158.0, 125.3, and 160 kg ha-1 P2O5, while when Policote coated MAP, the maximum productivity was 3,950.3 kg ha-1, 4,380.5 kg ha-1 and 4,343.0 kg ha-1 with 159.0, 160.0 and 140.1 kg ha-1 P2O5, respectively, in 2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 seasons. Increasing phosphate fertilizer rates decreased agronomic P use efficiency (APUE), which was mitigated by P-coated fertilizer (fertilizer with improved efficiency). Lower APUE was observed in the 2019/2020 season, likely as a result of residual effects from previous phosphate fertilizer applications