Advantage of Sesame and Cowpea Intercrops in Different Fertilizer Application Systems

Abstract

To investigate the effects of different fertilizer applications and sesame/cowpea intercropping systems on soil fertility, a split plot experiment based on randomized complete block design was conducted in Fasa, Fars province, during 2014. The main plots were five fertilizer levels consisted of: using chemical fertilizers nitrogen+phosphorous (F1), organic fertilizers (F2), biofertilizers (F3), 50% chemical fertilizer + 50% organic fertilizer (F4) and 50% chemical fertilizer + 50% biofertilizer (F5), and sub plots consisted of: sole cropping of sesame (M1), sole cropping of cowpea (M2), 50:50 sesame-cowpea intercropping (M3), 75:25 sesame-cowpea intercropping (M4) and 25:75 sesame-cowpea intercropping (M5). The results showed that soil fertility and cropping systems affected the yield and yield components of sesame and cowpea significantly. The highest yield of sesame (1292.6 kg.ha-1), and cowpea (3772.4 kg.ha-1) were obtained from their sole croppings. Among the applications of fertilizer, the highest yield of sesame (950.49 kg.ha-1) and cowpea (2582.50 kg.ha-1) belonged to bioorganic and biofertilizer treatments, respectively. In spite of these results, the highest land equivalent ratio (LER) belonged to F4 (1.24) and M3 (1.03) treatments. In general, according to the results, it seems that 50:50 sesame-cowpea intercropping (M3) and application of 30 kg.ha-1 N + 50 kg.ha-1 P + 150 kg.ha-1 bio-organic fertilizer (F4), may reduce application of chemical fertilizers and be beneficial to sesame-cowpea intercropping system.

Keywords

• Cowpea
• Intercropping usefulness
• Sesame
• Soil fertility
• yield