Abstract
Agriculture designs for cropping system with legume intercropping for increased resource use efficiency, profitability, productivity and reduced adverse environmental impact are urgently required. A three-year field experiment consisting of six cropping treatments applied during both seasons was conducted during 2008-2009 to 2010-2011 to study the effect of nitrogen and legume intercropping with maize for sustainability of maize-wheat cropping systems. Results indicate that the photosynthetic active radiation was at noon reaching nearly 1940 μmol m-2 s-1 for maize and 1620 μmol m-2 s-1 for intercropped legumes. Intercropping can increase light interception, shading and reduce evaporation as compared to sole maize. Maize intercropped had higher values of stomatal conductance and leaf temperature than pure crop. The grain yield and yield attributing characters of wheat crop increased significantly under intercropping treatments when compared with wheat only. Wheat yield significantly increased up to 160 kg N ha-1. However, there was no significant increase in yield of maize beyond 120 kg N ha-1. Sole maize-wheat rotation showed a decline in soil organic carbon by 3.7%, while black gram and cowpea intercropping with maize in paired rows (2:2 row ratio) followed by wheat had increased contents of per cent organic carbon in soil as 0.63 and 0.67, respectively, as compared to initial values of 0.54%. Plots treated with intercrops/farm yard manure (FYM) during the rainy season sustained the wheat yield while the control plot showed a decline in wheat yield by 4-9%. Key words: Sustainability, intercropping, soil temperature, crop productivity.
Highlights
Soil fertility was maintained through the application of farmyard manure
The objective of this study was to identify the effect of nitrogen addition and different legume intercropping with maize for sustainability of maize-wheat cropping systems
An experiment was conducted for maize-wheat system with legume intercropping in farmers participatory mode in the jurisdiction of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), India, during 2008-09 to 201011.Treatments included: Sole maize (60 cm) and wheat control grown with farm yard manure (FYM) @ 10 t/ha, maize intercropped with blackgram/cowpea in paired rows (30/90 cm) in 2:2 row ratio, normal planted maize (60 cm) intercropped in 1:1 row ratio with pigeon pea/blackgram with pure stand of maize as checked under irrigated condition followed by wheat during rabi season with three nitrogen levels (80,120 and 160 kg N/ha), applied to maize as well as to wheat
Summary
Soil fertility was maintained through the application of farmyard manure. Farmyard manure is the primary source of nutrients for maize fields, the use of fertilizers is growing in importance. Since farmers apply all the manure available on their farms, it is the increased use of fertilizer that is likely to enable increases in maize production in the future. Most studies on intercropping have focused on resource utilization, including water light (Shackle and Hall, 1984; Donald, 1985) and nutrients (Dhiman et al, 2007), resulting in substantial yield advantage when compared with sole cropping. A number of mechanisms exist by which intercrops utilize resources such as light, water and nutrients more efficiently than the equivalent sole crops (Anil et al, 1998; Ghanbari et al., 2010; Undie et al, 2012)
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