Abstract
Intercropping legumes with cereals has been a common cropping system in short-season rainfed environments due to its increased productivity and sustainability. Intercropping barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) with Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) could increase the grain yield of barley and improve resource use efficiency of the intercropping system. However, non-optimum planting geometry has been a hurdle in the adaptation of barley-based cropping systems. This study was aimed at optimizing the planting geometry, and assess the productivity and profitability of barley-Egyptian clover intercropping system. Ten different planting geometries, differing in number of rows of barley, width and number of irrigation furrows and planting method were tested. Intercropping barley with Egyptian clover improved 56–68% grain yield of barley compared with mono-cropped barley. Barley remained dominant crop in terms of aggressiveness, relative crowding coefficient and competitive ratio. The amount of water used was linearly increased with increasing size of barley strip from 3 to 8 rows. The highest water use efficiency (4.83 kg/cf3) was recorded for 8-row barley strip system with 120 cm irrigation furrows compared to rest of the planting geometries. In conclusion, 8-rows of barley planted on beds with Egyptian clover in 120 cm irrigation furrows had the highest net income and cost benefit ratio. Therefore, it is recommended that this planting geometry can be used for better economic returns of barley-Egyptian clover intercropping system. However, barley strips with >8 rows were not included in this study, which is limitation of the current study. Therefore, future studies with >8 barley rows in strip should be conducted to infer the economic feasibility and profitability of wider barley strips.
Highlights
Inefficient utilization of limited resources is one of the major constraints in crop productivity under semi-arid subtropical climates [1]
The highest biological yield (8.76, 9.05 tons/ha) was recorded for 8-rows of barley sown on beds with Egyptian clover sown in 120 cm irrigation furrows and the lowest (8.39, 8.46 tons/ha) was recorded for 3-rows of barley sown on beds with Egyptian clover cultivated in 45 cm irrigation furrows for both crop seasons
Three rows of barley sown on beds with Egyptian clover cultivated in 45 cm irrigation furrows had the lowest grain yield (2.58, 2.76 tones/ha) for both crop years
Summary
Inefficient utilization of limited resources is one of the major constraints in crop productivity under semi-arid subtropical climates [1]. Erratic rainfall along with declining soil fertility has resulted in the failure of crops sown in monoculture. Growing low input requiring crops, water saving irrigation techniques and intercropping are the potential alternatives to maximize crop productivity and resource use efficiency [4]. Several problems associated with modern farming (e.g. yield stagnation, soil degradation, pest and pathogen infestation, disease incidence and environmental deterioration) could be addressed through intercropping [9]. Optimum planting geometry is an important factor in different intercropping systems for better utilization of available resources and harvesting more solar radiations. Planting geometry is dependent on crop season, relative proportion of component crops, relative growth type and mechanism of yield enhancement [10]
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