A Two-Year Study on Yield and Yield Components of Maize-White Bean Intercropping Systems under Different Sowing Techniques

Aidyn Zhanbota,Rana Shahzad Noor,Azeem Iqbal Khan,Adnan Noor Shah,Gangyi Wang,Muhammad Mohsin Waqas,Sami Ullah

doi:10.3390/agronomy12020240

Abstract

Food security is directly coupled with enhanced production under optimized cropping intensity. Intercropping is a diversified and sustainable agricultural technique with optimized cropping intensity. Intercropping is used to obtain a higher yield and more balanced products per unit area. This study was performed at Aidyn Research Institute, Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan, in 2018 and 2019 to identify the effects of different sowing patterns on maize-white bean (Zea mays–Phaseolus vulgaris) sowing systems. The field experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Göynük-98 was used for white beans, and SY Miami was used for maize, with 20 cm and 40 cm row spaces for maize, and 10 cm and 20 cm row spaces for white bean and sole maize, sole white bean, maize-white bean-maize-white bean, maize-white bean-white bean-maize and white bean-maize-maize-white bean sowing systems. The results showed that wide row spacing was better than narrow row spacing in terms of land equivalent ratio (LER) for both maize and white beans, but grain yield was higher in narrow row spacing. Yield items for both maize and white beans showed higher values in intercropping. Grain yield was higher in sole sowing. The maize-white bean-white bean-maize sowing system for maize and the white bean-maize-maize-white bean sowing system for white beans were determined as the best sowing systems according to the yield components.

Highlights

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Intercropping is a sustainable agricultural technique employed to yield more balanced products by sowing multiple crops in the same field; it is termed polyculture or mixed cropping [1]
This indicated that the maize and white bean yields were dependent on the weather conditions during the growing seasons, and on the stress caused by a water deficit in the soil over the years, in particular during the seed formation phase
This study examined the performance of maize-white bean sowing systems at Aydin

Summary

Introduction

Intercropping is a sustainable agricultural technique employed to yield more balanced products by sowing multiple crops in the same field; it is termed polyculture or mixed cropping [1]. It is an economically viable agricultural production technique within a sustainable agricultural system [2]. Intercropping is used to obtain a higher yield and more balanced products from the unit area and to decrease the production of weeds [10]

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