Effect of spatial arrangement and cropping systems on the productivity of cassava-legume intercropping systems in three Agro-climatic zones of Sierra Leone

Abstract

Competition is one of the most important factors that influence productivity of component crops in intercropping systems. Thus, an experiment was conducted in order to evaluate the competitive interactions between the component crops in a cassava-legume based intercropping system. The experiment was a factorial randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments consisted of seven cropping associations and two spatial arrangements. The results show that the root yield for cassava was higher for the cassava-soybean system with Segbwema recording the highest root yield. For the grain legumes, yields were higher for the sole legumes compared to the intercropped. In addition, both root and grain yields were on average higher when the grain legumes were intercropped with cassava using the 2 m x 0.5 m spatial arrangement for cassava. The result further shows that land equivalent ratio was greater than one and was higher for the cassava-soybean system compared to the other cropping systems. Furthermore, the result shows a higher monetary advantage index for all cropping systems indicating that all cropping systems were feasible and profitable. In conclusion, it was shown that cassava-legume intercropping systems were more advantageous in terms of productivity and monetary advantage for smallholder farmers across the three agro-climatic zones.