Abstract
Narrow-row planting patterns directly affect crop yield and competition in intercropping systems. A two-year (2012 and 2013) field experiment was conducted to determine the interactive behavior between intercrops in a maize–soybean relay strip intercropping system. Maize plants were planted in different narrow-wide row planting patterns, whereas soybean was planted in wide rows. The total biomass and grain yield of maize increased with increasing maize narrow-row spacing, but the opposite trend was observed for soybean. The aggressivity, competitive ratio, and partial relative crowding advantage values for maize were greater than those for soybean. Moreover, the competitive interaction of the intercrops was affected by the distance between maize and soybean rows. The highest intercrop land equivalent ratio (LER) 1.61 and 1.59 was found in the 40:160 planting pattern (i.e. 40 cm narrow-row spacing and 160 cm wide-row spacing of maize) during 2012 and 2013, respectively. Combined with actual yield loss and LER, the intense intra-specific competition of maize plants reduced the depression for the associated soybeans when the maize narrow-row spacing was less than 30 cm. When the narrow-row spacing was wider than 50 cm, soybean growth was seriously depressed by maize because of the stronger inter-specific competition between maize and soybean. The maximum yield and economic advantage appeared in the 40:160 narrow-wide row planting pattern. Therefore, intercropping advantage may be achieved by changing the row spacing and distance between intercrop rows to coordinate the inter-specific competition between maize and soybean.
Highlights
The increasing global population and decreasing suitable land areas for food production have made high productivity and sustainability of agriculture a global challenge (Tscharntke et al, 2012)
The mean grain yield and total biomass of maize and soybean were higher in the sole crops (Table 2)
With increasing narrow-row spacing, the total biomass and grain yield of the intercropped maize increased, and the maximum mean data, which appeared in the narrow–wide-row planting pattern of 80:120, were 13.12 × 103 and 6.18 × 103 kg ha−1, respectively
Summary
The increasing global population and decreasing suitable land areas for food production have made high productivity and sustainability of agriculture a global challenge (Tscharntke et al, 2012). The multiple cropping index of cropland needs to be increased to develop grain production (Yan et al, 2010; Zhu et al, 2000). Intercropping plays an important role in the sustainable development of agriculture and food production worldwide (Miyazawa et al, 2014; Rodríguez-Navarro et al, 2010). Compared with the corresponding sole cropping systems, intercropping often has higher yield advantages and land-use efficiency (Mao et al, 2012). Planting patterns affect the yield potential of intercrops in intercropping systems (Yang et al, 2015)
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