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Interspecies Competition, Growth and Yield in Barley-peanut Intercropping

M. A. Awal
Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Department of Crop Botany, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh.

M. H. R. Pramanik
Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Department of Crop Botany, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh.

M. A. Hossen
Laboratory of Plant Ecology, Department of Crop Botany, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

An experiment was carried out to study the effect of barley/peanut inter cropping on the interspecies competition, growth and yield performance of the crops. The barley was considered as main crop and peanut as inter crop. The experiment comprised of four treatments viz., (i) SB, sole barley, (ii) SP, sole peanut, (iii) BP1, barley/peanut alternate inter crop (one row of barely and one row of peanut, alternately) and (iv) BP2, one row of barley with two rows of peanut inter crop. The plant height, leaf number, tiller or branch number per plant, leaf area index, total dry matter per plant and grain or seed yield were significantly affected by the different inter cropping systems and were maximum in SB as well as in SP while those were minimum in BP1. Maximum grain yield of peanut (3.21 t ha^-1) was harvested from its sole cropping followed by that of BP2 (2.39 t ha^-1). The barley yield was declined by 56% in BP2 and that of peanut yield by 26% compared to their respective sole crops. However, inter cropping of peanut with barley exhibited a remarkable change in land equivalent ratio (LER). The highest LER (1.18) was obtained from BP2 followed by BP1 (1.07) inter cropping, i.e., land-use efficiency was increased by 18% for BP2 and 7% for BP1. The LERs exhibit that both the inter cropping systems are encouraging for harvesting more seed yield. Barley equivalent yield (ca. 6.20 t ha-1) was maximum for the BP2 followed by BP1 inter cropping (ca. 4.56 t ha^-1). The competitive ratio of each stand approached unity indicates that barley-peanut association effectively balanced the competition between both species. These results strongly suggest that peanut can profitably be inter cropped with barley as one row of barley with two rows of peanut.

Keywords: Association, Competitive ratio, Equivalent yield, Land-use efficiency

Location: Department of Crop Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh

Start Date: 00-12-2003

End Date: 00-05-2004

Program Area: Farming System

Commodity: Barley, Ground nut

Objectives:

To study the effect of barley/peanut inter cropping on the interspecies competition, growth and yield performance of the crops

Methodology:

A field study was conducted at the experimental farm of the Department of Crop Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh (24°25’ N, 90°50’ E, 18 m above sea level) during the winter/spring cropping season extended from December 2003 to May 2004. The site is an old Brahmaputra alluvial flood plain. The experimental field is a medium low land, fairly leveled and silt loam in texture having a soil pH of 6.32. The basal fertilizers of N, P₂O₅ and K₂O were applied at a rate of 83, 55 and 48 kg ha^-1, respectively. Total amount of P₂O₅ and K₂O and half of N were applied during the final land preparation. Rest half of the N was equally applied in the two equal splits one at 25 days after sowing (DAS) and the other at 45 DAS (BARC, 1997). Seeds of barley (cv. ‘BARI Barley-1’) and peanut (cv. Dhaka-1) were sown by hand on 25 December 2003 in rows oriented north to south (N-S). Soon after emergence, the seedlings were thinned keeping the plant lets at appropriate distance. Pest control and other cultural practices were performed to optimize growth and development. The experiment comprised four treatments: sole crops of barley and peanut (referred as SB and SP, respectively) and two kinds of barley/peanut intercrop (referred as BP1 and BP2, respectively). The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replicates. The unit plot size was 5x5 m. The row spacing was 40 cm for both SB and SP. In the BP1 inter crop plot, the barley inter-row distance was the same as for SB and the peanut rows were grown between the barley rows, i.e., 20 cm from the barley rows. In the BP2 inter crop plot, the barley inter-row distance was 80 cm and two peanut rows (40 cm apart) were grown between the barley rows where the distance between barley row and adjacent peanut row was 20 cm. In both inter crop plots, the row to row distance for peanut was remained same as sole peanut (SP), i.e., 40 cm. For both sole and inter crops, the intra-row spacing was 10 cm for barley and 25 cm for peanut. Detailed plot layout for all treatments is presented. The destructive sampling for recording data on different growth parameters were started from 44 DAS and continued at an interval of 14 days till maturity of barely (100 DAS) or peanut (142 DAS). Five representative plants were uprooted carefully in order to ensure maximum root to be retained. The morphological data were recorded on plant height, number of effective tillers i.e., spikes per hill (for barley) or branches per plant (for peanut), number of leaves per hill or plant, leaf area (LA) etc. The LA was calculated from the relationship between the leaf DM (dry matter) and the specific leaf area, which were derived separately for each plot and sampling date. LA of representative sample was measured with an electronic area meter (LI 3000, LiCor, USA). The leaf area index (LAI) was calculated as the leaf area/ground area (m²m^-2). The plant parts were separated in to root, stem, leaf and spike or pod and dried to a constant weight in an oven at 70°C. The collected data were statistically analyzed and the mean differences were evaluated by Duncan’s New Multiple Range Test.

Source of Information: Asian Journal of Plant Sciences, 6 (4): 577-584, 2007, ISSN 1682-3974

Article Link (Online Journal): DOI: 10.3923/ajps.2007.577.584, URL: http://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=ajps.2007.577.584

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The results strongly suggested that barley can profitably be inter cropped with peanut at the rate of one row of barley and two rows of peanuts. Every year Bangladesh expenses about US$ 1.7 and 0.07 millions to import peanut and barley grains, respectively (BBS, 2004), hence the information of this study could help to save such foreign currency to a great extent.

Knowledge Management: Journal