English

Abstract

Pigeonpea is an important grain legume, and is traditionally intercropped with maize in West Africa and India. Small farmers in Limpopo Province, South Africa, who cultivate pigeonpea landraces under traditional mixed intercropping, experience the challenge of low productivity. Strip intercropping is a novel cropping system has greater efficiency and productivity in resource utilization when compared to mixed intercropping. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the performance of improved pigeonpea varieties under a pigeonpea-maize strip intercropping system. Five pigeonpea varieties (ICEAP 001284, ICEAP 00604, ICEAP 87091, ICEAP 00661 and ICEAP 01101-2) were intercropped in maize as mixed and strip intercropping during the 2015–2016 and 2016/2017 cropping seasons while monocrops of both crops were also maintained as control. The trial for each season was replicated three times in a split plot design. During both seasons, ICEAP 001284 and ICEAP 00604 exhibited the shortest number of days to attain 50% flowering under strip intercropping and monocropping when compared to the remaining varieties. Higher significant (P < 0.05) grain yields (1726 kg ha-1, 1478 kg ha-1 and 858 kg ha-1 were obtained under strip intercropping for ICEAP 001284, ICEAP 01101-2 and ICEAP 00604, respectively during 2016/2017 than their respective grain yields during 2015/2016 season. Strip intercropping out-performed mixed intercropping with a higher land equivalent ratio and cash returns due to its ripple effect in the enhanced yield components. Among the five pigeonpea varieties, ICEAP 001284, ICEAP 00604 and ICEAP 01101-2, performed exceedingly well in their crop mixtures. In conclusion, the three pigeonpea varieties were selected for cultivation under strip intercropping. Strip intercropping exhibited greater efficiency in resource utilization and productivity over mixed intercropping in terms of grain yield, land equivalent ratio, net profit, and benefit-cost ratio. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers