Increasing yield of waxy maize following paddy rice through mycorrhiza-biofertilization and additive intercropping with several rows of peanut

Abstract

Biofertilization with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) has been reported to increase yield of various crops. Waxy maize is one of specialty maize that tastes good but yield normally low especially in local cultivars. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of mycorrhiza-biofertilizer application and additive intercropping with several rows of peanut on yield performance of waxy maize of local Bima variety grown following paddy rice. The experiment was arranged with Split Plot design with three blocks and two treatment factors, i.e. mycorrhiza-biofertilizer application as the main plots (M0= without, M1= with mycorrhiza-biofertilizer) and intercropping as the subplots (I0= monocropped maize, I1, I2, I3: relay-planting of 1, 2 or 3 rows of peanut between maize rows three weeks after seeding maize). The results indicated that application of mycorrhiza-biofertilizer was more affecting growth variables while intercropping was more affecting yield components of the waxy maize. However, there were significant interaction effects on plant height, green-leaf weight, dry stover weight, 100 grain weight, grain yield, harvest index, and proportion of grain to cob. In the plots with no application of mycorrhiza-biofertilizer, there were no differences in grain yield between different number of rows of peanut relay-planted between maize rows but when mycorrhiza biofertilizer was applied to the maize and peanut plants, relay-planting 2 rows of peanuts (I2) resulted in the highest maize grain yield (88.63 g/plant or 5.91 ton/ha), while the lowest maize grain yield (54.63 g/plant or 3.64 ton/ha) was in the monocropped maize with no mycorrhiza-biofertilizer (I0M0). The highest additional grain yield from peanut relay-planted between maize rows was in the I3M1 plot (708.5 g or 1174 grains per plot), followed with those in the I2M1 plot (539.8 g or 948 grains per plot). Therefore, there is a good prospect for peanut production by relay-planting it between rows of waxy-maize followed with application of mycorrhiza-biofertilizer.