Multi-species intercropping is a sustainable agricultural practice worldwide used to utilize resources more efficiently. In intercropping systems, short crops often grow under vegetative shade of tall crops. Soybean, one important legume, is often planted in intercropping. However, little is known about the mechanisms of shade inhibition effect on leaf size in soybean leaves at the transcriptom...

BACKGROUND Within-field multiple crop species intercropping is well documented and used for disease control, but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. As roots are the primary organ for perceiving signals in the soil from neighboring plants, root behavior may play an important role in soil-borne disease control. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In two years of field experiments, maize/soybean interc...

This pape r tries to illustrate how beneficial interactions between crops can be exploited to increase the overall output of a cropping system. Growth studies with sorghum/pigeonpea and mil let /groundnut a re described to show how intercropping systems can achieve much larger yields than sole crops by using environmental resources more fully over t ime or more efficiently in space. D a t a fro...

Many bacteria and fungi in the plant rhizosphere and endosphere are beneficial to plant nutrient acquisition, health, and growth. Although playing essential roles in ecosystem functioning, our knowledge about the effects of multiple cropping regimes on the plant microbiome and their interactions is still limited. Here, we designed a pot experiment simulating different cropping regimes. For this...

Intercropping is one of the important cultural practices in pest management and is based on the principle of reducing insect pests by increasing the diversity of an ecosystem. On-farm experiments were conducted in villages of semi-arid tropical (SAT) India to identify the appropriate combination of castor (Ricinus communis L.) (Malpighiales: Euphorbiaceae) and intercropping in relation to pest ...

Intercropping is regarded as an important agricultural practice to improve crop production and environmental quality in the regions with intensive agricultural production, e.g., northern China. To optimize agronomic advantage of maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) intercropping system compared to monoculture of maize, two sequential experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 was to s...

Sweet sorghum is a popular grain crop grown in water stress prone areas in the world. Its sole stand leaves ample resources untapped. This study evaluated the feasibility of intercropping sweet sorghum using eight intercropping patterns composed of 2 x 2 x 2 factorial combinations of two legumes (viz. mung bean and soybean), two row patterns [viz. alternate single row (ASR) and double row (ADR)...

Plant height, biomass production, assimilatory functions and chlorophyll accumulation of Panicum maximum and Stylosanthes hamata in intercropping systems was influenced significantly under elevated CO2 (600 +/- 50 ppm) in open top chambers (OTCs). The plant height increased by 32.0 and 49.0% over the control in P. maximum and S. hamata respectively in intercropping system under elevated CO2 ove...

Traditional agriculture in rainfed uplands of India has been experiencing low agricultural productivity as the lands suffer from poor soil fertility, susceptibility to water erosion and other external pressures of development and climate change. A shift toward more sustainable cropping systems such as conservation agriculture production systems (CAPSs) may help in maintaining soil quality as we...