The utilization of Cd-contaminated soil in vegetable crop production can lighten the food crisis and improve the soil environmental resilience. Intercropping is a reliable technology in safety ...production from contaminated soil. A field-scale experiment was carried out to unravel how plant species and pattern affect the growth and Cd uptake of Chinese cabbage from Cd contaminated land. Among all the intercropping systems designed in this study, one row of Chinese cabbage intercropping with one row of Solanum nigrum L. is the best planting mode (high yields (2.78 kg/m2) and low Cd accumulation (0.02 mg/kg) of Chinese cabbage). Combined with the in-depth joint analysis of diverse soil physicochemical features (soil nutrient characteristics and microbial community structure), biomass yield and quality, and soil microbiological properties, we elaborated that two measures (screening hyperaccumulation types and controlling planting strip width) were the major factors in determining the growth of the aboveground and underground parts of Chinese cabbage respectively, thus directly regulating the application effectiveness of intercropping technology. The intertwined mechanisms (interspecific and intraspecific relationship) of different intercropping systems are summarized, which include better utilization of space, light and other resources in the aboveground part, bioavailability of nutrient, drive of soil bacteria and alleviated soil Cd stress in the underground part, etc. Our research outputs indicate the effectiveness and feasibility of intercropping can be improved by optimizing the streamline configuration and plant mode, which provide theory of reference and practical evidence for warranting the food safety and agricultural soil remediation simultaneously.
Display omitted
•Intercropping can be used as a safe utilization technology for polluted farmland.•Intercropping can realize "remediate while production" at a field scale.•Screening planting species and strip widths can tune intercropping effect.•The internal mechanisms of above/underground on the intercropping were discussed.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•A menu of legume intercrop options for subsistence farmers in Nepal was tested.•Maize + cowpea, millet + soybean, wheat + pea, mustard + pea, and ginger + maize – soybean appeared to be ...productive.•Seasonal intercropping increased yield by 16–30% and potential income by 15–288%.•Ginger + maize – soybean was an innovative year-round option in the mid-hills.•Intercropping appeared to be a viable option to intensify terrace agriculture.
Low nitrogen inputs, low crop yield, and low land productivity are major challenges associated with cereal-based sole cropping systems in Nepal. Crop intensification and diversification by introducing legumes as intercrops could help alleviate these challenges. With the presence of diverse crops and cropping systems, particularly in hilly topographies, a range of intercrop options is required. We compared 10 intercrop combinations to native sole cropping systems in the mid-hills of Nepal for two cropping seasons (2015–2017) to identify the most productive and economic intercrop combinations for smallholder terrace agriculture. In the spring-summer season (i.e., mid-March to mid-July), cowpea (var. Makaibodi and Suryabodi) and bean were intercropped with maize in 1:1 rows, whereas soybean, blackgram, and horsegram were broadcast with millet (30:70 ratios) during the rainy-autumn season (i.e., mid-July to mid-November). Pea and lentil were used as pre-winter/winter intercrops (i.e., mid-November to mid-March) in mustard (30:70 ratios), while wheat was planted with pea. Ginger was planted with maize in 1:1 rows during the spring-summer season in which the maize rows were replaced by soybean and lentil during the rainy-autumn and pre-winter/winter season, respectively. Plots were analyzed for yields of individual crops as well as other agronomic indicators including land equivalent ratio (LER), total land output (TLO), harvest index (HI), and potential economic return.
Maize + cowpea var. Makaibodi appeared to be the most productive and economic intercrop combination for the spring-summer season (LER – 1.58 and TLO – 4.26 t ha−1, 21% higher than the maize sole crop with an increase in potential economic return by 67%) whereas millet + soybean appeared to be the best combination for the rainy-autumn season (LER – 1.40 and TLO – 2.21 t ha−1, 26% higher than the millet sole crop with a 288% increase in potential income). For the pre-winter/winter season, wheat + pea and mustard + pea combinations appeared to be productive (wheat + pea: LER – 1.31 and TLO – 2.90 t ha-1 i.e., 16% higher than sole wheat with a 54% increase in potential income; mustard + pea: LER – 1.36 and TLO – 2.14 t ha−1 i.e., 30% higher than sole mustard with a 15% increase in potential income). The year round intercrop system (i.e., ginger + maize-soybean) displayed a LER value of 2.45 with increased TLO (21.8 t ha−1 i.e., 2% higher compared to sole ginger) which increased potential economic return by 6%. We conclude that legume intercropping was a robust option across seasons and locations confirming that it could be a promising ecological practice for intensification of cereal-based sole cropping systems on smallholder terraces. Also, it is important to note that soybean and pea provided higher potential net income to farmers as sole crops compared to when they were grown with millet and wheat as intercrops, respectively. It is important that we promote these options to smallholder farmers and disseminate the advantages of legume integration on land productivity, soil fertility management, and income.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
•A global meta-analysis was conducted on maize/soybean intercropping.•Average land equivalent ratio (LER) was 1.32 ± 0.02.•The average value of fertilizer nitrogen equivalent ratio (FNER) was ...1.44 ± 0.03.•Intercropping saved fertilizer due to concentrating production on less land with similar fertilizer N input per unit land.•Increasing N input scarcely changed LER and pLERmaize but significantly reduced intercropped soybean yield.
Intercropping exploits species complementarities to achieve sustainable intensification by increasing crop outputs per unit land with reduced anthropogenic inputs. Cereal/legume intercropping is a classical case. We carried out a global meta-analysis to assess land and fertilizer N use efficiency in intercropping of maize and soybean as compared to sole crops, based on 47 studies reported in English and 43 studies reported in Chinese. The data were extracted and analyzed with mixed effects models to assess land equivalent ratio (LER) of intercropping and factors affecting LER. The worldwide average LER of maize/soybean intercropping was 1.32 ± 0.02, indicating a substantial land sparing potential of intercropping over sole crops. This advantage increased as the temporal niche differentiation between the two species was increased by sowing or harvesting one crop earlier than the other as in relay intercropping, i.e. with only partial overlap of the growing periods of the two species The mean fertilizer N equivalent ratio (FNER) was 1.44 ± 0.03, indicating that intercrops received substantially less fertilizer N than sole crops for the same product output. These fertilizer savings are mainly due to the high relative maize yield and the lower N input in the intercrop compared to the input in sole maize. This meta-analysis thus shows that exploiting species complementarities by intercropping maize and soybean enables major increases in land productivity with less fertilizer N use. Both LER and FNER increased as the difference in growth duration increased for maize and soybean, but were not affected by fertilizer N rate. LER increased when soil organic matter increased but FNER did not change with soil organic matter.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Intercropping is a powerful way that promote a more diversified plant community in croplandas. It is important to understand how this practice regulates phosphorus (P) footprint and trade-off in ...plant-soil system which influences crop productivity. Herein, a field-based experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of intercropping of maize with legumes (peanut and soybean) and non-legumes (gingelly and sweet potato) on maize productivity and P transformation and regulation. Compared with the monoculture, intercropping treatments increased maize yield, P use efficiency (PUE), P partial factor productivity (PFPP), and aboveground P uptake by 13.3–34.4%, 6.2–41.2%, 13.6–68.2%, and 10.3–20.1%, respectively. Intercropping treatments significantly reduced the cumulative losses of total P, dissolved P, and particulate P by 4.7–60.1%, 3.2–67.1%, and 2.7–64.7%, respectively. Maize/peanut and maize/soybean systems showed a better advantage in improving maize productivity and mitigating P runoff loss than the maize/gingelly and maize/sweet potato. Compared with the monoculture, intercropping increased the contents of soil labile-P, stable-P, solution-P, hydrolysable-P, and exchangeable-P by 3.1–7.8%, 18.7–63.2%, 8.4–35.5%, 0.2–28.3%, and 38.6–637.1%, respectively. The potential activities of soil alkaline and acid phosphatase in intercropping treatments increased respectively by 15.3–173.7% and 5.6–215.2% compared with the monoculture. Maize productivity components (crop yield, PFPP, and PUE, and plant P uptake) were positively correlated with soil P composition and bioavailability, microbial biomss P, and phosphatase activity, while negatively correlated with P runoff loss (P < 0.05). Those findings highlight the importance in understanding how soil P composition and microbially-driven P dynamics mediates plant P uptake to determine the consequences of intercropping for maize productivity.
Display omitted
•Intercropping increased maize yield and PUE by 13–34% and 6–41%, respectively.•Intercropping decreased the runoff loss of TP, DP, and PP by 5–60%, 3–67%, and 3–65%.•Intercropping increased soil phosphatase activities by 6–215% with maize development.•Increased productivity was related to soil P composition, bioavailability, and dynamics.•Intercropping-driven plant-soil P trade-off contributed to maize productivity improvement.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
A survey was carried out to assess the opportunities and barriers for farmers to adopt intercropping and crop rotations in the uplands of Prey Veng and Svay Rieng provinces in South-Eastern of ...Cambodia. Survey methods with 37 respondents in Prey Veng and 39 respondents in Svay Rieng. Epidata Software was used to build a data entry template and the data was further exported into SPSS Software for final cleaning and analysis. Each province has differences in agricultural cultivation and crop types. Majority of agricultural land is owned by farmers in Prey Veng province at 78.4% and Svay Rieng province at 74.4%, while rental land is 21.6-25.6%. The practices of crop rotation and intercropping systems is very low, crop rotation at 5.1-13.5% and intercropping at 2.6-5.4%. Own land ownership and practices of crop rotation/intercropping in Prey Veng province are higher than in Svay Rieng province. Obstacles to the adoption of intercropping between provinces are different, in Svay Rieng Province are lack of access to irrigation, lack of access to markets, labor and credit; while in the province of Svay Rieng are small field size, lack of market, lack of land ownership and lack of credit. In both provinces is the suitability of the technologies to the region and the high level of complexity. The barriers to adoption, especially lack of markets, labour and credit suggest the need for greater engagement of the private sector for the provision of advice and support.
Purpose
Intercropping is an important agricultural management that has been applied worldwide. Although intercropping improves soil nutrients and crop productivity, its effects on the ...microbial-mediated belowground processes and main drivers remain unclear.
Methods
We performed the same field study at two sites (Site1, Youyu; Site2, Zhangbei) by growing soybean and oat in monoculture and intercropping to investigate their effects on rhizosphere soil properties, enzyme stoichiometry, and soil ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF).
Results
Intercropping increased available phosphorus (Avail-P) by 87% and 16% for oat and soybean compared to the corresponding monoculture in site1, respectively. We also found that intercropping increased the C-acquiring and N-acquiring enzyme activities by 18%-48% in site1. Moreover, intercropping enhanced soil EMF and alleviated microbial P limitations for both oat and soybean compared to the corresponding monoculture in site1. However, all observed parameters were not affected by intercropping in site2, which may be due to the lower Avail-P, mineral nitrogen (N
min
), and precipitation in site2 compared to site1. Moreover, the soil EMF was strongly positively correlated with soil N
min
, Avail-P, air temperature, and precipitation.
Conclusion
Therefore, intercropping improves soil ecosystem multifunctionality by increasing available nutrients, which are regulated by regional factors.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Satisfying the nutritional needs of a growing population whilst limiting environmental repercussions will require sustainable intensification of agriculture. We argue that intercropping, which is the ...simultaneous production of multiple crops on the same area of land, could play an essential role in this intensification. We carried out the first global meta-analysis on the multifaceted benefits of intercropping. The objective of this study was to determine the benefits of intercropping in terms of energetic, economic and land-sparing potential through the framework of the stress-gradient hypothesis. We expected more intercropping benefits under stressful abiotic conditions. From 126 studies that were retrieved from the scientific literature, 939 intercropping observations were considered. When compared to the same area of land that was managed in monoculture, intercrops produced 38% more gross energy (mean relative land output of 1.38) and 33% more gross incomes (mean relative land output of 1.33) on average, whilst using 23% less land (mean land equivalent ratio of 1.30). Irrigation and the aridity index in non-irrigated intercrops did not affect land equivalent ratio, thereby indicating that intercropping remains beneficial, both under stressful and non-stressful contexts concerning moisture availability. Fertilisation and intercropping patterns (rows and strips vs. mixed) did not affect land equivalent ratio. Although intercropping offers a great opportunity for intensification of existing agricultural lands, many challenges need to be tackled by experts from multiple disciplines to ensure its feasible implementation.
Display omitted
•Global productivity potential of intercropping was determined using a meta-analysis.•Global land equivalent ratio of intercropping was 1.30.•Land equivalent ratio of intercropping did not vary through a water stress gradient.•Intercropping increases gross energy production by 38%.•Intercropping increases gross incomes by 33%.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Moso bamboo is considered a potential species for heavy metal (HM) phytoremediation; however, the effect of intercropping on rhizosphere and phytoextraction remains to be elucidated. We comparatively ...investigated rhizobacteria, soil properties, and phytoextraction efficiency of monoculture and intercropping of Moso bamboo and Sedum plumbizincicola in Cu/Zn/Cd-contaminated soil. Compared with monocultures, intercropping increased the bacterial α-diversity indices (Shannon, Chao1) and the number of biomarkers. Intercropping reduced the contents of soil organic matter (SOM), available nutrients, and Cd and Cu in rhizosphere soils, and reduced the Cd and Zn contents in tissues of sedum. By contrast, Cd and Zn contents in tissues of bamboo increased, and the increase of organic acid in root exudates from intercropping could facilitate the HM absorption. The total amount of Cu, Zn, and Cd removed from the soil in intercropping system was 1.2, 1.9, and 1.8 times than those in monoculture bamboo, respectively. The abundances of Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Verrucomicrobia and Actinobacteria were higher in intercropping, playing an important role in soil nutrient cycles and HM remediation. These bacterial communities were closely correlated (P < 0.01) with SOM, available nitrogen, available phosphorus, and HMs. The results suggested this intercropping pattern can increase HM removal efficiency from polluted soils.
Display omitted
•Intercropping alters the bacterial community structure in the rhizosphere soil.•Intercropping enhances metal uptake capacity of Cu, Zn and Cd in bamboo plantation.•Root exudate organic acids correlate with bacterial community composition.•Increased biomass and decreased soil pH in intercropping contribute to HM removal.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Training on Agro Eco-System Analysis for Cassava Farmers in Plant Pest Organism Management Techniques. Pest population fluctuations in cassava plants tend to increase and spread rapidly in drought ...fields and a monoculture cropping pattern with close spacing therefore the presence of pests planted is highly dependent on agro-ecosystem conditions. Therefore ecological-based pest control is very necessary. To maintain the stability of the plant ecosystem, basic skills are needed in conducting agroecosystem analysis (AESA). Based on the analysis results obtained recommendations for appropriate ecosystem management for each growing season and facilitate farmers in determining good cultivation techniques regarding pest control, cropping patterns, soil and water conservation as well as natural enemies that are appropriate for their plants. AESA activities are carried out so that farmers understand and are skilled in managing their cassava plantations because Randotonda Village is a producer of "Nuabosi" cassava which is known as a regional superior product. The activity is carried out in a participatory manner by directly involving the participating farmers as observers, fact seekers and decision-makers for the management of their agroecosystems through discussion and manifesting current real conditions with the hope that in the future they can manage their cropping agroecosystems properly. The highest increase in farmer understanding occurred in natural enemy components of 91.67% while the average increase in farmer understanding for all agro-ecosystem components was 57.14%. All participants were able to perform AESA very well which was indicated by the ability of farmers to make recommendations for managing cassava agroecosystems for the next planting season.
PDF
