Abstract
Effects of phosphorus rate and crop arrangement on yields and economic benefits in maize-bean cropping systems were investigated for two seasons: Short rains (SR) of 2015 and long rains (LR) of 2016 in Western Kenya. A split plot design with five crop arrangements in the main plots; one row of maize and beans alternating (conventional), maize and beans planted in the same hole (SH), two rows of maize alternating with two of beans (Mbili), sole maize and sole beans, and three P rates; 0, 30, and 60 kg ha-1 in the subplots was used. There were no significant effects of crop arrangement on maize and bean yields in LR but bean yields increased with increasing P rate in both seasons. Within a crop arrangement, maize yields also increased with P rate in the SR. Conventional and Mbili arrangements had similar yields for both beans and maize which were superior to SH at 60 kg P ha-1 in SR. Sole beans significantly out-yielded intercropped ones. Intercropping was only beneficial (LER > 1) with adequate rainfall in SR but financial returns were too low for all the tested practices because of low yields coupled with high production costs and low producer prices. Key words: Crop arrangements, intercropping efficiency, phosphorus.
Highlights
In western Kenya, increased population pressure has reduced per capita area of cropping land and most small scale farmers own less than 0.2 ha of land (Vanlauwe et al, 2011)
The better performance of these two intercropping arrangements compared to maize and beans planted in the same hole is attributed to the appropriateness of these crop arrangements that reduced interspecies competition for growth resources between maize and beans
While competition for nutrients and water is expected to be severe in maize and beans planted in the same hole contributing to low maize yields, the low yield of sole maize compared to the other intercrops of Mbili and conventional was unexpected
Summary
In western Kenya, increased population pressure has reduced per capita area of cropping land and most small scale farmers own less than 0.2 ha of land (Vanlauwe et al, 2011). The key to increasing crop yields in this region, in order to feed the growing population, lies with intensification that is, increasing yields per unit area rather than expansion of the cropping area. Most of these lands have over the years been depleted of plant nutrients especially nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and crop yields are low (Sanchez et al, 1997). Intercropping is not a new concept, but because of the current threat to food security, there has been a renewed interest to better productivity of such systems in tropical agriculture (Malezieux, 2009)
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