Evaluation of the Effect of Intercropping Sugarcane - Legume on the Quantitative, Qualitative and Physiological Characteristics of Sugarcane

In order to investigate the effect of different treatments of  intercropping sugarcane with two types of legumes on some quantitative and qualitative propertys of sugarcane, an experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with 14 treatments and four replications in two locations in Ahvaz, Iran in 2016-2017. The treatments included: Pure Sugarcane, Pure Soybean, Pure Cowpea, Pure Soybean +Rhizobium, Pure Cowpea+Rhizobium, Pure Sugarcane+Mycorrhizal, Intercropping Sugarcane with Cowpea, Intercropping Sugarcane with Soybean, Intercropping Sugarcane with Cowpea+Rhizobium, Intercropping Sugarcane with Soybean + Rhizobium, Intercropping Sugarcane+Mycorrhiza and Cowpea, Intercropping Sugarcane+Mycorrhiza and Soybean, Intercropping Sugarcane+Mycorrhiza and Soybean + Rhizobium and Intercropping Sugarcane+Mycorrhiza and Cowpea+Rhizobium. The results of combined analysis of variance showed that the highest harvest index for cane yield (93.81 %) and sugar yield (7.34 %), purity (87.28 %), white sugar percentage (11.73 %), and maximum nitrogen (2.56 %), phosphorus (0.26 %), potassium (1.91 %) in the lamina, and moisture content (83.82 %) in the leaf sheath of sugarcane in treatment of intercropping sugarcane (inoculated with fungi) with cowpea (inoculated with bacteria) and the best LER in treatment of intercropping sugarcane with cowpea were obtained. These results showed that mycorrhiza symbiosis was positive in sugarcane, and when mycorrhiza fungi and cowpea were present simultaneously in a treatment, their synergistic effect on the harvest index of cane yield and harvest index of sugar yield and also qualitative propertys in sugarcane were positive.