dc.description.abstract |
Intercropping is an old and commonly used agricultural cropping practice, of cultivating two or
more crops in the same space at the same time. A field experiment was conducted to determine
the different row arrangement and different time of haricot bean intercropping on yield of
component crops during 2018 main cropping season in Abaraje/Addis Alem Kebele, Bahir
Dar Zone, Northwest Ethiopia. BH-540 and Batu for haricot bean Varity were used for the
experiment. Factorial combinations of three intercropping dates of haricot bean (at the
same time, one week after maize plant, two week after maize plant) and two row
arrangements (1maize:1haricot bean and 1maize:2haricot bean) was laid out in
Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. One sole crop for
each maize and haricot bean was added for comparison. Time of intercropping and row
arrangement didn’t show significant effect (P>0.05) on most parameters of maize crop
except plant height and cob length were affected by time of haricot bean intercropping.
Intercropping date had significant effect (P≤0.05) on most parameters of haricot bean
except date of emergence, hundred seed weight. Whereas row arrangement showed
significant effect (P≤0.05) on plant height, total biomass, grain yield, straw yield and
harvest index of haricot bean. The results indicated that the two main important factors
determining the productivity of component crops. 1 maize: 2 haricot bean and 1maize:
1haricot bean row arrangement with simultaneous intercropping achieved total land
equivalent ratio values of 1.65 and 1.53 respectively. High marginal return rate was
scored from 1:2 row arrangement with simultaneous intercropping (23.64).Therefore,
further experiment is necessity for intercropping in the target area, based on its better
compatibility, productivity and economic benefit.
Keywords: Compatibility, Intercrop, Land equivalent ratio, Simultaneous |
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