Abstract
A trial involving intercropped and pure stands of carrots 'Nantes' and onions 'Kupusinski jabucar' was conducted on a certified organic farm in Futog. The yield, morphological and nutritional properties of the crops analyzed were determined in the study. Furthermore, the biological efficiency of intercropping was assessed using the relative yield (RYT) and the land use efficiency index (LER). The mixture of crops had influenced the morphological properties examined. In both experimental plant species, the nutritional properties of onions and carrots exhibited a higher content of dry matter (DM) in the double-row growing system without maize gluten meal (onions - 11.42 %, carrots - 10.45 %) compared to single crops. The highest content of β-carotene was determined by alternating single rows of onions and carrots in a plot without the use of gluten (68.94 μg/g DM). The relative yield and the land use efficiency index have shown that there is a biological efficiency of combining carrots and onion as the values obtained are higher than 1. Carrots and black onions are favorable for intercropping because they are complementary, thus interactively contribute to increasing the yield per unit area and improving the nutritional properties.
Highlights
Organic production represents one of the most important sustainable agriculture systems, wherein higher nutritional values of food could be achieved alongside the preservation of biodiversity and agroecosystems (Šeremešić et al 2017)
Due to the above-mentioned characteristics, the intercropping approach to vegetable production is of increasing importance and central interest to a large number of scientists in the field of agriculture and ecology (Brooker et al, 2015)
The purpose of this paper is to assess the efficiency of carrot and onion intercropping, and to investigate which of the combining methods used has a positive effect on the productivity and quality of selected plant species in the organic growing system
Summary
Organic production represents one of the most important sustainable agriculture systems, wherein higher nutritional values of food could be achieved alongside the preservation of biodiversity and agroecosystems (Šeremešić et al 2017). In the organic system of vegetable production, in addition to the proper selection of varieties / hybrids and crop rotation, intercropping could play an important role (Ugrinović et al, 2014). Due to the above-mentioned characteristics, the intercropping approach to vegetable production is of increasing importance and central interest to a large number of scientists in the field of agriculture and ecology (Brooker et al, 2015). In addition to the most common intercropping species in the world (namely maize and beans), there are several combinations of crops that could be considered a viable option relative to the agroecological conditions in Serbia: carrots and onions, lettuces and onions (Lazić et al, 2014), as well as beans and radishes (Ugrinović, 2015). According to Novaković et al (2012), the areas devoted to onions in Serbia have been diminishing since
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