Maize/soybean strip intercropping produces higher crop yields and saves water under semi-arid conditions

• DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1006720
• Publication Date: 2022-11-01T07:11:35Z
• Authors: Muhammad Ali Raza; Hassan Shehryar Y...; Hina Gul; Ruijun Qin; Atta Mohi Ud Din; Muhammad Hayder B...; Sajad Hussain; Harun Gitari; Amjed Saeed; Jun Wang; Esmaeil Rezaei-Ch...; Ayman El Sabagh; Amir Manzoor; Akash Fatima; Shakeel Ahmad; Feng Yang; Milan Skalicky; Wenyu Yang
• Keywords: Intercropping; Water Use Efficiency; Cropping system

Sustainable increases in crop production require efficient use of resources, and intercropping can improve water efficiency land productivity at reduced inputs. Thus, a three-year field experiment, the performance maize/soybean strip system differing with maize plant density (6 plants m-2, low, D1; 8 medium, D2; 10 high, D3) was evaluated comparison sole or soybean cropping system. Results revealed that among all treatments, D2 had significantly higher total leaf area index (maize LAI + LAI; 8.2), dry matter matter; 361.5 g plant-1), grain yield yield; 10122.5 kg ha-1) than D1 D3, also (4.8, 338.7 plant-1, 9553.7 (4.6, 64.8 1559.5 ha-1). The intercropped more utilizing radiation water, 3.5, 5.2, 4.3 MJ-1 14.3, 16.2, 13.3 ha-1 mm-1, while 2.5, 2.1, 1.8 1.9, 1.5 mm-1 D1, D2, respectively. In intercropping, equivalent ratios ranged from 1.22 to 1.55, demonstrating it is sustainable strategy efficiencies; this maximization likely associated species complementarities for radiation, time space, which resulted part competition avoidance responses maximize economic profit (e. g., 1300 US $ D2) over (798 (703 Overall, these results indicate optimizing systems save 20-50% land, especially under present scenario limited resources climate change. However, further research required fully understand resource capture mechanisms intercrops intercropping.