Abstract
Strip intercropping of coffee with enset could be an alternative approach to enhance resource use efficiency and land productivity, which is a common practice Southern Ethiopia. However, the optimum strip ratio of coffee to enset has been limited in the study area. In view of this, a field experiment was conducted at Awada Agriculture Research Sub-center between 2012 and 2018/19 to evaluate the effect of strip intercropping ratios of coffee to enset on yield and yield components of both crops and to determine economically optimum coffee to Enset strip intercropping ratio. The experiment was comprised of six treatments: sole coffee, sole Enset, 1C:1, 2:1, 3:1, and 4:1, and laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The analysis of variance revealed that both coffee and enset growth, yield, and yield components were significantly affected by coffee-enset strip intercropping. Coffee to enset ratio of (3:1) was provided the highest pooled mean yield of coffee, closely followed by (sole coffee)) compared with others strip ratios. Concerning the economic yield of enset, sole enset offers the maximum yield related to other treatments. Similarly, the maximum total LER of 1.63 was recorded from the coffee to enset ratio of (3:1) implies a yield advantage of 63% achieved from this strip ratio. Therefore, strip intercropping of coffee to enset at 3:1 ratio could be recommended to the study area as revealed by the highest yield and total LER for sustainable production and productivity.
Highlights
Intercropping system allows better resource use efficiency and reduces the need for external inputs [1]
The pooled mean analysis result showed that there was a significant variation among different strip intercropping patterns, the highest (15 Q ha-1) and lowest (11.36 Q ha-1) recorded from coffee where intercropped with enset at 3:1 ratio and sole planted, respectively
The aforementioned results depicted that growth, yield, and yield components of coffee and enset were significantly influenced by coffee-enset strip intercropping
Summary
Intercropping system allows better resource use efficiency and reduces the need for external inputs [1]. It is a practice of growing two or more crops in the same piece of land at the same time and plays an important role in subsistence food production in developing countries [2]. Interactions in the component crops under intercropping facilitate each other to achieve maximum yielding or productivity [5] and cloud reduces the yield of the less competitive crops in intercropping. Coffee serves as the major cash source to the farm household, which expends the cash on its different uses. According to Damenu et al [7], the crop is commonly
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