Effect of intercropping on the morphological and nutritional properties of carrots and onions in organic agriculture

Abstract

A trial involving intercropped and pure stands of carrots 'Nantes' and onions 'Kupusinski jabučar' was conducted on a certified organic farm in Futog. The yield, morphological and nutritional properties of the crops analyzed were determined in the study. Furthermore, the biological efficiency of intercropping was assessed using the relative yield (RYT) and the land use efficiency index (LER). The mixture of crops had influenced the morphological properties examined. In both experimental plant species, the nutritional properties of onions and carrots exhibited a higher content of dry matter (DM) in the double-row growing system without maize gluten meal (onions - 11.42 %, carrots - 10.45 %) compared to single crops. The highest content of β-carotene was determined by alternating single rows of onions and carrots in a plot without the use of gluten (68.94 μg/g DM). The relative yield and the land use efficiency index have shown that there is a biological efficiency of combining carrots and onion as the values obtained are higher than 1. Carrots and black onions are favorable for intercropping because they are complementary, thus interactively contribute to increasing the yield per unit area and improving the nutritional properties.

Keywords

• intercropping
• carrot
• onion
• efficiency index
• dry matter
• β carotene