An experiment was conducted at the research station of the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) at Machakos, Kenya from November 1989 to February 1996 to evaluate the effect of annual and perennial legumes on soil fertility, cereal yields and economic returns. The study evaluated six cropping systems: (1) continuous sole maize, (2) maize rotated with short-duration legume, ...

Improving plant energy conversion efficiency (εc) is crucial for increasing food and bioenergy crop production and yields. Using a meta-analysis, the effects of greenhouse gases, weatherrelated stresses projected to intensify due to climate change, and management practices including inputs, shading, and intercropping on εc were statistically quantified from 140 published studies to identify whe...

Intercropping systems influence yield variables of the component crops, such as harvest index, hundred seed weight, number of reproductive organs and number of seeds, within each reproductive unit. Two experiments were carried out at each of two sites during 1993 and 1994. The first experiment investigated the effects of seeding soybean or lupin alone or in combination with one of three forages...

Intercropping, which grows at least two crop species on the same pieces of land at the same time, can increase grain yields greatly. Legume-grass intercrops are known to overyield because of legume nitrogen fixation. However, many agricultural soils are deficient in phosphorus. Here we show that a new mechanism of overyielding, in which phosphorus mobilized by one crop species increases the gro...

in order to evaluate millet (panicum miliaceum l.) and cowpea (vigna unguiculata l.) intercropping, an experiment was conducted during 2008-2009 at agriculture research center of zabol university, iran. the experiment was as randomized complete block design with three replications. treatment s consisted of sole crop of millet, sole crop of cowpea, 25% millet + 100% cowpea, 50% millet + 50% cowp...

Weed competition is a significant problem in maize (Zea mays, L.) production in Sub-Saharan Africa. Better understanding of weed management and costs in maize intercropped with beans (Phaseolus vulgaris, L.) during transition to conservation agricultural systems is needed. Changes in weed population and maize growth were assessed for a period of three years at Bungoma where crops are grown twic...

Weed management systems that rely less on chemical control are needed globally. Next to curative chemical weed control, there are other ways of tackling weed problems, such as (a) reduction of the weed seed bank in the soil, (b) reduced recruitment of weed seeds from the soil seed bank, and (c) strengthening the relative competitive ability of the crop. A number of case studies are presented in...

A field experiment was conducted on deep vertisols of Bhopal, India to evaluate the manural potential of three organic manures: farmyard manure (FYM), poultry manure (PM), phosphocompost (PC) vis-a-vis 0%, 75% and 100% recommended dose of fertilizer-NPK and to find out the most productive cropping system at various combinations of organic manures and chemical fertilizers. The seed yield of inte...

Smallholder farming households represent one of groups most exposed to the vagaries climate change because their production and livelihood depend on climatic elements. This study assessed effect adaptive capacity smallholder households' food security in Oyo State, Nigeria. Data from 246 were analysed using factor analysis generate Climate Change Adaptive Capacity Index (CCACI), Foster-Greer-Tho...

introduction weeds are main factors reducing crops yield, especially under organic farming conditions (). it has been reported that weed populations are more in organic farming compared to conventional cropping systems, resulting in more reduction of growth and yield. although the chemical control is a fast and effective way for controlling weed populations, some negative impacts of the recent ...