Revisiting intercropping indices with respect to potato-legume intercropping systems

Gitari, Harun I.; Nyawade, Shadrack O.; Kamau, Solomon; Karanja, NK; Gachene, Ckk; Raza, Muhammad Ali; Maitra, Sagar; Schulte-Geldermann, Elmar

doi:10.1016/j.fcr.2020.107957

Cited by 71 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The dry mass was determined by oven-drying about 500 g samples at 65 • C to a constant mass. The yields were converted into potato equivalent (PEY) using Equation (6) (Gitari et al, 2018a(Gitari et al, , 2020a. For dolichos, the estimations considered grain and shoot biomass separately as this legume is used as both pulse and forage.…”

Section: Chlorophyll Content Light Interception Crop Yield and Radimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The land equivalent ratios recorded under intercropping systems were greater than one, an indication that integration of legumes into potato-based cropping systems favored growth and yield of the companion crops grown in mixtures. The system productivity index of intercrops were greater than that of the sole potato, which was an indication that interspecific facilitation was greater than interspecific competition (Gitari et al, 2020a). This implies that intercropping resulted in greater land-use efficiency and resource productivity (Wahla et al, 2009;Machiani et al, 2018).…”

Section: Intercropping and Silicon Effect On Crop Yield And Resource mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Enhancing Climate Resilience of Rain-Fed Potato Through Legume Intercropping and Silicon Application

Nyawade

Gitari

Karanja

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A large portion of sub-Saharan Africa is situated in belts of uncertain rainfall and are characterized by low soil fertility with limited capacity to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change. A field study was conducted in the semi-humid potato-growing belt of Kenya to test the effect of legume intercropping and water soluble silicon (orthocilicic acid) on soil erosion, and use efficiency of light and water. Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) was grown singly and intercropped with dolichos (Lablab purpureus L.) or hairy vetch (Vicia sativa L.). Each cropping system was subjected to granular water-soluble silicon (Si) amendment at two rates [2.5 kg Si ha −1 (+Si) vs. 0 kg Si ha −1 (-Si)]. Plants receiving Si maintained significantly higher (p < 0.05) percent relative leaf water content (62-89% vs. 52-72% in controls) and exhibited higher concentrations of proline (1.99-2.91 vs. 1-1.19 umol g −1), soluble carbohydrates (28-59 vs. 10-28 umol g −1) and electrolyte conductance (1,409-3,903 vs. 746-2,307 mS cm −1). Legume intercropping enhanced groundcover establishment and reduced soil and nutrient losses by 45-80% compared with sole potato. Crop yields were 2-3-fold greater in intercropping relative to sole potato and were significantly greater in treatments subjected to Si application. Land equivalent ratios were above unity in intercropping but less than unity in sole potato, and were 8-20% increased by Si application. Use efficiency of water (5.99-9.09 Kg ha −1 m −3) and light (1.98-2.98 g MJ −1) were significantly greater under legume intercropping compared with sole potato (1.13-3.23 Kg ha −1 m −3 and 0.77-0.98 g MJ −1 , respectively) and increased with Si application. Integrative use of Si and legume intercropping presents the smallholder farmers an opportunity to increase productivity of potato while enhancing resource use efficiency and soil fertility in the semi-humid tropics.

show abstract

Section: Chlorophyll Content Light Interception Crop Yield and Radimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Intercropping and Silicon Effect On Crop Yield And Resource mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Climate Resilience of Rain-Fed Potato Through Legume Intercropping and Silicon Application

Nyawade

Gitari

Karanja

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The arithmetic average of LER and ATER is likely to give a more precise estimation of yield advantage than LER and ATER (Mason et al, 1986): Originally put forward by Mason et al (1986), equation (7) has been wrongly cited, and also corrupted by several authors. For instance, Yaseen et al (2014) and Gitari et al (2020) cited Mead and Willey (1980) as the progenitor of the formula, and also used a spurious formula for land use efficiency (LUE), which vitiated the results and interpretations of their experiments. Clearly, these authors and their peer reviewers had ignored to check up the cited works of Mason et al (1986) and Mead and Willey (1980).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The robustness of land equivalent ratio as a measure of yield advantage of multi-crop systems over monocultures

Deb

Dutta

2022

Exp Results

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Land equivalent ratio (LER) is a most widely used indicator of yield advantage of multi-crop farms over sole-crop farms, and usually measured using crop biomass yield per unit area. Most often, crop yields are compared between both systems using the same area. In this paper, we demonstrate that although the yield per unit area and the yield per plant are widely different, LER remains invariant. As a corollary, area time equivalent ratio and land use efficiency, derived from LER, also remain unchanged when using the two different measures of crop yields. We recommend that when the estimation of the exact land area is difficult due to complex crop planting designs, yield per plant estimate is much easier and equally valid for estimation of LER and its derivative indices.

show abstract

“…Common bean and dragonhead intercropping were compared with their sole croppings using the land equivalent ratio (LER) based on the following formula:

italicLER = \frac{Y 1}{D 1} + \frac{Y 2}{italicCB 2}

Where: Y 1 and Y 2 represent the D and CB yields in the intercropping and D 1 and CB 2 represent dragonhead and common bean yields in sole croppings, respectively (Gitari et al, 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Where: Y 1 and Y 2 represent the D and CB yields in the intercropping and D 1 and CB 2 represent dragonhead and common bean yields in sole croppings, respectively (Gitari et al, 2020).…”

Section: Land Equivalent Ratiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvement of dragonhead (Dracocephalum moldavica L.) yield quality through a coupled intercropping system and vermicompost application along with maintenance of soil microbial activity

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The effects of an intercropping system combined with organic fertilizer application on the yield quality of medicinal plants and the involved mechanisms have not been well elucidated. To evaluate the effects of different fertilizers (vermicompost and chemical fertilizers) on the dragonhead essential oil (DEO) productivity (dragonhead = Dracocephalum moldavica L.) (D) in sole cropping and intercropping with common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) (CB), a 3-year field experiment was carried out using a factorial based on randomized complete block design. We found that the highest common bean seed yield and dry matter productivity of dragonhead were obtained from sole cropping fertilized with vermicompost. Regarding the major DEO constituents, the highest content of geranyl acetate (42.2%), geranial (23.4%), and geraniol (17.81%) were recorded using the cropping ratio of 2D:1CB following the use of vermicompost.Soil micro-biochemical parameters (basic microbial respiration, substrate-induced respiration, microbial biomass carbon, alkaline and acid phosphatase, and urease) in the intercropping systems were found to be higher than those of the corresponding sole croppings. The highest soil microbial activity was observed in the intercropping ratios of 2D:1CB and 1D:2CB following the use of vermicompost. Furthermore, the highest land equivalent ratios (LER = 1.28) were achieved in the intercropping ratio 2D:1CB after vermicompost application. Thus, this combination of stimulated soil microbial activity and functionality, which in turn accelerated nutrient mobilization and availability, enhanced plant performance. Therefore, we can conclude that intercropping dragonhead with common bean at the ratio of 2D:1CB coupled with vermicompost application can be introduced as an alternative and sustainable strategy to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers.

show abstract

Revisiting intercropping indices with respect to potato-legume intercropping systems

Cited by 71 publications

References 53 publications

Enhancing Climate Resilience of Rain-Fed Potato Through Legume Intercropping and Silicon Application

Enhancing Climate Resilience of Rain-Fed Potato Through Legume Intercropping and Silicon Application

The robustness of land equivalent ratio as a measure of yield advantage of multi-crop systems over monocultures

Improvement of dragonhead (Dracocephalum moldavica L.) yield quality through a coupled intercropping system and vermicompost application along with maintenance of soil microbial activity

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About