YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF MAIZE/COWPEA INTERCROP AS AFFECTED BY ROW-ARRANGEMENT AND COWPEA VARIETIES IN THE SUDAN SAVANNAH
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33003/jaat.2024.1004.06.377Keywords:
Maize/cowpea,, intercrop,, sole crop,, performance,, row arrangement,, varietiesAbstract
Field experiment was conducted during the 2023 rainy season at the Teaching and Research Farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Bayero University Kano (11ᵒ58N, 8ᵒ25E) and Institute for Agricultural Research Farm Minjibir (12ᵒ10’42N, 8ᵒ39’33E) to determine the productivity of maize/cowpea intercrops as affected by cowpea varieties and row arrangement in Sudan savanna of Nigeria. The treatments consisted of two cowpea varieties (SAMPEA19 and SAMPEA21) and four row arrangements (1M:1C, 1M:2C, 2M:1C, 2M:2C). Sole maize and cowpea were established in each replication for evaluation of intercrop productivity. These were laid out in a split plot design and replicated three times. Row arrangement was assigned to the main plot and cowpea variety to the sub plot. The result of the study at both locations revealed that grain yield of maize at BUK (2286.8 kg ha-1) and Minjibir (1211.2 kgha-1), was higher in 1M:1C than other row arrangement. In the case of cowpea, SAMPEA 21 recorded highest values for number of pod/plants, 100 seed weight, pod yield and grain yield at both locations, 1M:1C row arrangement recorded the highest Pod weight at BUK (2034.2 kg ha-1) and Minjibir (1801.2 kg ha-1) and grain yield of 1717.7 and 1596.3 kg ha-1 at BUK and Minjibir respectively. All the treatment combinations resulted in land equivalent ratio (LER) greater than 1.0 with combination of SAMPEA21 and 1M:1C (1.58, 1.40) recording the highest LER value in both locations.
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