Dataset Information

Enhancing the systems productivity and water use efficiency through coordinated soil water sharing and compensation in strip-intercropping.

ABSTRACT: In arid areas, water shortage is threating agricultural sustainability, and strip-intercropping may serve as a strategy to alleviate the challenge. Here we show that strip-intercropping enhances the spatial distributions of soil water across the 0-110?cm rooting zones, improves the coordination of soil water sharing during the co-growth period, and provides compensatory effect for available soil water. In a three-year (2009-2011) experiment, shorter-season pea (Pisum sativum L.) was sown in alternate strips with longer-season maize (Zea mays L.) without or with an artificially-inserted root barrier (a solid plastic sheet) between the strips. The intercropped pea used soil water mostly in the top 20-cm layers, whereas maize plants were able to absorb water from deeper-layers of the neighboring pea strips. After pea harvest, the intercropped maize obtained compensatory soil water from the pea strips. The pea-maize intercropping without the root barrier increased grain yield by 25% and enhanced water use efficiency by 24% compared with the intercropping with the root barrier. The improvement in crop yield and water use efficiency was partly attributable to the coordinated soil water sharing between the inter-strips and the compensatory effect from the early-maturing pea to the late-maturing maize.

SUBMITTER: Chen G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6043509 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Enhancing the systems productivity and water use efficiency through coordinated soil water sharing and compensation in strip-intercropping.

Chen Guodong G Kong Xuefu X Gan Yantai Y Zhang Renzhi R Feng Fuxue F Yu Aizhong A Zhao Cai C Wan Sumei S Chai Qiang Q

Scientific reports 20180712 1

In arid areas, water shortage is threating agricultural sustainability, and strip-intercropping may serve as a strategy to alleviate the challenge. Here we show that strip-intercropping enhances the spatial distributions of soil water across the 0-110 cm rooting zones, improves the coordination of soil water sharing during the co-growth period, and provides compensatory effect for available soil water. In a three-year (2009-2011) experiment, shorter-season pea (Pisum sativum L.) was sown in alte ...[more]

PMID: 30002422

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Project description:Yield and nutrient acquisition advantages are frequently found in intercropping systems. However, there are few published reports on soil fertility in intercropping relative to monocultures. A field experiment was therefore established in 2009 in Gansu province, northwest China. The treatments comprised maize/faba bean, maize/soybean, maize/chickpea and maize/turnip intercropping, and their correspoding monocropping. In 2011 (the 3rd year) and 2012 (the 4th year) the yields and some soil chemical properties and enzyme activities were examined after all crop species were harvested or at later growth stages. Both grain yields and nutrient acquisition were significantly greater in all four intercropping systems than corresponding monocropping over two years. Generally, soil organic matter (OM) did not differ significantly from monocropping but did increase in maize/chickpea in 2012 and maize/turnip in both years. Soil total N (TN) did not differ between intercropping and monocropping in either year with the sole exception of maize/faba bean intercropping receiving 80 kg P ha-1 in 2011. Intercropping significantly reduced soil Olsen-P only in 2012, soil exchangeable K in both years, soil cation exchangeable capacity (CEC) in 2012, and soil pH in 2012. In the majority of cases soil enzyme activities did not differ across all the cropping systems at different P application rates compared to monocrops, with the exception of soil acid phosphatase activity which was higher in maize/legume intercropping than in the corresponding monocrops at 40 kg ha-1 P in 2011. P fertilization can alleviate the decline in soil Olsen-P and in soil CEC to some extent. In summary, intercropping enhanced productivity and maintained the majority of soil fertility properties for at least three to four years, especially at suitable P application rates. The results indicate that maize-based intercropping may be an efficient cropping system for sustainable agriculture with carefully managed fertilizer inputs.

Project description:Intense cultivation with narrow row spacing in wheat, a common practice in the Indo-Gangetic plains of South Asia, renders the crop more susceptible to lodging during physiological maturity. This susceptibility, compounded by the use of traditional crop cultivars, has led to a substantial decline in overall crop productivity. In response to these challenges, a two-year field study on the system of wheat intensification (SWI) was conducted. The study involved three different cultivation methods in horizontal plots and four wheat genotypes in vertical plots, organized in a strip plot design. Our results exhibited that adoption of SWI at 20 cm × 20 cm resulted in significantly higher intercellular CO2 concentration (5.9-6.3%), transpiration rate (13.2-15.8%), stomatal conductance (55-59%), net photosynthetic rate (126-160%), and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) interception (1.6-25.2%) over the existing conventional method (plant geometry 22.5 cm × continuous plant to plant spacing) of wheat cultivation. The lodging resistance capacity of both the lower and upper 3rd nodes was significantly higher in the SWI compared to other cultivation methods. Among different genotypes, HD 2967 demonstrated the highest recorded value for lodging resistance capacity, followed by HD 2851, HD 3086, and HD 2894. In addition, adoption of the SWI at 20 cm × 20 cm enhanced crop grain yield by 36.9-41.6%, and biological yield by 27.5-29.8%. Significantly higher soil dehydrogenase activity (12.06 μg TPF g-1 soil hr-1), arylsulfatase activity (82.8 μg p-nitro phenol g-1 soil hr-1), alkaline phosphatase activity (3.11 n moles ethylene g-1 soil hr-1), total polysaccharides, soil microbial biomass carbon, and soil chlorophyll content were also noted under SWI over conventional method of the production. Further, increased root volumes, surface root density and higher NPK uptake were recorded under SWI at 20×20 cm in comparison to rest of the treatments. Among the tested wheat genotypes, HD-2967 and HD-3086 had demonstrated notable increases in grain and biological yields, as well as improvements in the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and chlorophyll content. Therefore, adoption of SWI at 20 cm ×20 cm (square planting) with cultivars HD 2967 might be the best strategy for enhancing crop productivity and resource-use efficiency under the similar wheat growing conditions of India and similar agro-ecotypes of the globe.

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Project description:Optimum planting geometries have been shown to increase crop yields in maize-soybean intercrop systems. However, little is known about whether changes in planting geometry improve the seasonal water use of maize and soybean intercrops. We conducted two different field experiments in 2013 and 2014 to investigate the effects of changes in planting geometry on water use efficiency (WUE) and evapotranspiration (ETc) of maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] relay strip intercrop systems. Our results showed that the leaf area index of maize for both years where intercropping occurred was notably greater compared to sole maize, thus the soil water content (SWC), soil evaporation (E), and throughfall followed a decreasing trend in the following order: central row of maize strip (CRM) < adjacent row between maize and soybean strip (AR) < central row of soybean strip (CRS). When intercropped, the highest grain yield for maize and total yields were recorded for the 40:120 cm and 40:160 cm planting geometries using 160 cm and 200 cm bandwidth, respectively. By contrast, the highest grain yield of intercropped soybean was appeared for the 20:140 cm and 20:180 cm planting geometries. The largest land equivalent ratios were 1.62 for the 40:120 cm planting geometry and 1.79 for the 40:160 cm planting geometry, indicating that both intercropping strategies were advantageous. Changes in planting geometries did not show any significant effect on the ETc of the maize and soybean intercrops. WUEs in the different planting geometries of intercrop systems were lower compared to sole cropping. However, the highest group WUEs of 23.06 and 26.21 kg ha-1 mm-1 for the 40:120 cm and 40:160 cm planting geometries, respectively, were 39% and 23% higher than those for sole cropping. Moreover, the highest water equivalent ratio values of 1.66 and 1.76 also appeared for the 40:120 cm and 40:160 cm planting geometries. We therefore suggest that an optimum planting geometry of 40:160 cm and bandwidth of 200 cm could be a viable planting pattern management method for attaining high group WUE in maize-soybean intercrop systems.

Dataset Information

Enhancing the systems productivity and water use efficiency through coordinated soil water sharing and compensation in strip-intercropping.

Publications

Enhancing the systems productivity and water use efficiency through coordinated soil water sharing and compensation in strip-intercropping.

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