Abstract
Intercropping, a mix of non-legume and legume crops, can improve crop yield and/or economic returns and reduce input costs. Field experiments (barley-pea intercrop) were conducted in 2008, 2010 and 2011 on an Oskondoga silt loam soil at Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, to determine the effect of intercropping barley (non-legume) and pea (legume) on grain yield, land equivalency ratio (LER), grain quality (protein concentration-PC), N uptake and economic returns. Barley and pea were grown as mono crops and in combinations as intercrops (both in the same row/and alternate rows). Nitrogen fertilizer was applied at 0, 40 and 80 kg·N·ha-1 to mono crop barley and at 0, 20 and 40 kg·N·ha-1 to barley-pea intercrop combinations. On an average of three years, application of 80 kg·N·ha-1 increased grain yield of barley by 846 kg·ha-1 as a sole crop and by 420 - 488 kg·ha-1 in the two intercropping combinations. Compared to barley and pea as sole crops, grain yield with barley-pea intercropping was greater by 266 kg·ha-1 with alternate row combination and by 223 kg·ha-1when both crops were grown in the same row. The LER values suggested 7% - 17% less land requirement for barley-pea intercropping than sole crops. Net returns from barley-pea intercropping without applied N greatly improved ($854 - $939 ha-1) compared to barley sole crop with 80 kg·N·ha-1($628 ha-1), although the net returns were highest for pea grown as a sole crop without applied N ($1141 ha-1). For barley as a sole crop, PC in grain increased with applied N. Compared to barley as sole crop with zero-N, PC in barley grain increased when barley was intercropped with pea. In barley-pea intercrop treatments, application of N fertilizer had no significant effect on PC in barley grain, although PC in pea grain was much higher than PC in barley grain. The response trends of total N uptake in grain were similar to grain yield. The findings suggest that pea or barley-pea intercropping could be an option for organic farming systems.
Highlights
Intercropping generally refers to growing a mix of non-legume and legume crops
The land equivalency ratio (LER) values for barley-pea intercrop combinations were slightly greater than 1 in alternate rows, at all levels of N, and at lower N rates in the same row, but were only slightly less than 1 at the highest rate of N applied to barley or pea in the same row
The LER values in the barley-pea intercrop in both same row and alternative rows combinations were higher when sole crop of barley was grown at zero-N rate compared to application of N fertilizer; LER was the least at 80 kg·N·ha−1 (Table 2)
Summary
Intercropping generally refers to growing a mix of non-legume and legume crops. Intercropping could have several benefits, such as yield stability and reduced risk of crop failure due to crop diversity [1,2], lower input costs due to less fertilizer and pesticide usage, improve grain yield ( called out-yielding) and economic returns in cereal-legume [3,4,5,6,7] and grain quality [8]. Out-yielding in intercropping systems occurred due to weed suppression, reduced susceptibility to insect-pests and diseases [1215], efficient use of resources (e.g., nutrients, water, light) by diverse plant population compared to crop plants of the same type and other benefits, such as nitrogen (N) fixation by legumes, and increased root length [5,16,17]. There is little research information on the impact of intercropping annual non-legume and legume crops on yield, produce quality, economic returns, nutrients and water use efficiency, and disease severity in Canada, and such information is not available in northern Ontario. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects
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