Agro-economic efficiency dynamics in vegetable cowpea and radish cultivar combinations in strip-intercropping systems

Abstract

This work aimed to evaluate the dynamics of agro-economic efficiency in combinations of vegetable cowpea and radish cultivars in strip-intercropping systems through agronomic, economic and competition indices tested by the Hsu test in a semi-arid environment. The experimental design was a completely randomised block with eight treatments and four replications. The treatments consisted of combinations of four cowpea cultivars, BRS Tumucumaque, BRS Cauamé, BRS Guariba, and BRS Itaim, with two radish cultivars, Crimson Gigante and Zapp. In each block, individual plots of these cultivars in single cultivation were planted as additional treatments to obtain the system indices. The indices of agronomic and economic efficiency and of competition evaluated were land equivalent ratio (LER), actual yield loss (AYL), land use efficiency (LUE%), score of the canonical variable (Z), gross income (GI), net income (NI), rate of return (RR), corrected monetary advantage (CMA), competitive ratio (CR) and the aggressivity of radish over cowpea (Ar) and cowpea over radish (Avc). The cowpea cultivar BRS Tumucumaque, when combined with the radish cultivar Zapp, provided the highest agro-economic efficiency of the intercropped system in a semi-arid environment. The complementarity and sustainability of the intercropping systems of cowpea and radish were observed in the results of the Hsu test applied to the indices of agro-economic efficiency and of competition. Radish was the dominant crop.