Influence of number of seedling per planting hole on niebe (Vigna unguiculata l. Walp) agronomic parameters cultivated in daloa, Côte d’ivoire

Abstract

Cowpeas (Vignaunguiculata (L) walp) are one of the important plants in most African communities where they are grown. Cowpeas represent an easily transportable source of protein. Despite its importance, it confronted with numerous cultural constraints. This work was undertaken to evaluate the influence of number of plants per sowing point and seeding spacing on the growth and production of cowpea with a view to increasing cowpea yield. The trial was set up in a three replicates plot block design. The main plots consisted of the number of plants per sowing point (one plant per sowing point, two plants per sowing point and three plants per sowing point) at three spacing resulting in the following stand : Plots with a density of 20cm x 20cm had (225 ;450 ; 675) plants per sowing point, those with a density of 30cm x 30cm had (100 ;200 ; 300) plants per sowing point and finally those with a density of 40cm x 40cm had (56 ;112 ; 168) plants per sowing point. Observations were made on growth and yield parameters. The results showed that three plants per plot at high densities resulted in lower yields. Sowing two plants per sowing point at different spacing resulted in a 50% decrease in yield compared to sowing one plant per plot. On the other hand, the highest yield was obtained with the one plant per sowing point at low-density. On the other hand, the different spacing adopted induced significant effects for eight tenths of the observed parameters. The sowing of cowpea at 40 cm x 40 cm spacing with one plant per sowing point would effectively increase the yield of this crop in the city of Daloa.