Abstract
ABSTRACT Cereal-legumes intercropping is among the most economical and effective agronomic strategies to boost forage biomass production, nutritional quality and monetary returns. This review synthesizes the research findings on how intercropping affects productivity, quality, competitiveness and economic viability of sorghum-legumes mixed, row and strip intercropping systems under varied pedo-climatic conditions. Though component crops show yield reductions in row (additive and row-replacement series), mixed (seed blended crops) and strip intercropping systems, in general overall productivity per unit land area increases to a great extent. The significantly higher resource capturing with better utilization efficacy by intercrops in temporal and spatial dimensions helps explain their greater productivity. In addition, forage intercrops result in improved nutritional quality as legumes contain protein in double quantity than cereals. Cereal-legumes intercropping systems yield higher quantities of lush green forage with improved quality traits, which ultimately increase monetary benefits. Furthermore, legumes inclusion as an intercrop with cereals has the potential to serve as a nitrogen-saving strategy due to the biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) process. Moreover, cereal-legume intercropping systems are effective in reducing weed infestations and soil erosion by providing extended soil cover, as well as in increasing water use efficiency and improving soil fertility. However, despite a significant increase in overall productivity, component crops suffer yield losses in intercropping systems owing to competition for the finite divisible pool of growth resources. Thus, there is a dire need to optimize spatial and temporal arrangements in sorghum-legumes intercropping systems to achieve maximum productivity and economic returns.
Highlights
Forage intercropping integrates crops and livestock production because forages can be grown as intercrops with grain crops (Maughan et al 2009; Allen et al 2007)
It was reported that soybean in mixed intercropping with sorghum resulted in higher biomass production despite the decrease in the yields of component crops
In cereal-legumes intercropping systems, comparatively taller cereals render a shading effect that reduced the physiological growth of leguminous intercrops, which called for the need to optimize the spatial arrangement and canopy structure of component crops
Summary
Forage intercropping integrates crops and livestock production because forages can be grown as intercrops with grain crops (Maughan et al 2009; Allen et al 2007). Cereals intercropping with legumes result in increased resource capture by component crops and improve soil microbial activity along with better efficiency of resource conversion which triggers higher biomass production (Alvey et al 2003). Greater productivity per unit area by sorghum-soybean intercropping systems resulted in 46% higher monetary returns than their sole cropping (Iqbal et al 2017). It was reported that soybean in mixed intercropping with sorghum resulted in higher biomass production despite the decrease in the yields of component crops. Sani et al (2011) reported that cereal-sorghum row intercropping system (1:1 row ratio) was effective in increasing water use efficiency because it produced more biomass per unit area by using the same quantity of water as compared to their sole cultivation. In cereal-legumes intercropping systems, comparatively taller cereals render a shading effect that reduced the physiological growth of leguminous intercrops, which called for the need to optimize the spatial arrangement and canopy structure of component crops
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