Maize/Soybean Strip Intercropping Produces Higher Crop Yields and Saves Water Under Semi-Arid Conditions
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Date
2022
Authors
Raza, Muhammad Ali
Yasin, Hassan Shehryar
Gul, Hina
Qin, Ruijun
Mohi, Atta
Din, Ud
Khalid, Muhammad Hayder Bin
Hussain, Sajad
Gitari, Harun
Saeed, Amjed
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Frontiers
Abstract
Sustainable increases in crop production require efficient use of resources, and
intercropping can improve water use efficiency and land productivity at reduced
inputs. Thus, in a three-year field experiment, the performance of maize/soybean
strip intercropping system differing with maize plant density (6 maize plants m-2,
low, D1; 8 maize plantsm-2,medium, D2; and 10 maize plantsm-2, high, D3) was
evaluated in comparison with sole maize or soybean cropping system. Results
revealed that among all intercropping treatments, D2 had a significantly higher
total leaf area index (maize LAI + soybean LAI; 8.2), total dry matter production
(maize dry matter + soybean dry matter; 361.5 g plant-1), and total grain yield
(maize grain yield + soybean grain yield; 10122.5 kg ha-1) than D1 and D3, and also
higher than sole maize (4.8, 338.7 g plant-1, and 9553.7 kg ha-1) and sole soybean
(4.6, 64.8 g plant-1, and 1559.5 kg ha-1). The intercropped maize was more
efficient in utilizing the radiation and water, with a radiation use efficiency of 3.5,
5.2, and 4.3 g MJ-1 and water use efficiency of 14.3, 16.2, and 13.3 kg ha-1mm-1,
while that of intercropped soybean was 2.5, 2.1, and 1.8 g MJ-1 and 2.1, 1.9, and
1.5 kg ha-1 mm-1 in D1, D2, and D3, respectively. In intercropping, the land and
water equivalent ratios ranged from 1.22 to 1.55, demonstrating that it is a sustainable strategy to improve land and water use efficiencies; this maximization
is likely associated with the species complementarities for radiation, water, and
land in time and space, which resulted in part from competition avoidance
responses that maximize the economic profit (e. g., 1300 US $ ha-1 in D2) over
solemaize (798 US $ ha-1) or sole soybean (703 US $ ha-1). Overall, these results
indicate that optimizing strip intercropping systems can save 20–50% of water
and land, especially under the present scenario of limited resources and climate
change. However, further research is required to fully understand the resource
capture mechanisms of intercrops in intercropping.
Description
Article
Keywords
land productivity, water use efficiency, competition, sustainability, economic profit
Citation
Raza, M. A., Yasin, H. S., Gul, H., Qin, R., Din, A. M. U., Khalid, M. H. B., ... & Yang, W. (2022). Maize/soybean strip intercropping produces higher crop yields and saves water under semi-arid conditions. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13.