1Department of Agronomy, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara-144 411, Punjab, India
2Department of Entomology, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara-144 411, Punjab, India
3Faculty of Business and Professional studies, School of Business, Capilano University, North Vancouver, BC, V7J 3H5, Canada
*Corresponding Author: Arshdeep Singh, Department of Agronomy, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara-144 411, Punjab, India. Email: harrydeep628@gmail.com
Intercropping facilitates the exchange of nutrients between crops such as cowpea, maizeand mung bean. Soil nutrients are very limited as they are being consumed by the crops and weeds to complete their life cycle. Intercropping is a strategy against the overuse of inorganic fertilizer and to suppress the weed growth to avoid any harmful chemical application.
This research has been conducted in the field during Kharif season 2022 as well as in lab for post evaluation of soil and plant samples to analyze the available nutrients. The plant sample was determined based on agronomic parameters. After assuming homogeneity of variance, the data was put through an ANOVA and the results were reported as means and standard deviations.
The present experiment conducted with intercropping the main crop maize with cowpea and mung bean has offered an interesting result by providing better production and enhanced nutrient use efficiency, which is believed to be due to biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), the leguminous crops can supplement the maize crop with additional nutrients. Therefore, maize-cowpea intercrop (1:2) is recommended for higher yield for farmers in comparison to sole cropping of maize or cowpea in Punjab.
Biological nitrogen fixation, Legumes, Overused fertilizer, Responsible crop production, Weed growth
