article · BMC Plant Biology
A two-year field study evaluated how intercropping maize and soybean, with and without nitrogen fertilisation, affects crop yield, plant nutrient uptake, and soil properties. Intercropping substantially enhanced maize grain yield, dry biomass, and grain weight relative to monocropping, achieving peak yields under nitrogen-fertilised conditions. Conversely, soybean yields decreased when grown alongside maize. Across both years, land equivalent ratios exceeded one, indicating superior land-use efficiency in the intercropped plots. Both maize and soybean demonstrated significantly improved absorption of key nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, and zinc, particularly with added fertiliser. Additionally, intercropping boosted soil organic matter, available soil nutrients, and critical soil enzymatic activities, although it led to lower soil pH. The findings confirm that the combination optimizes resource utilisation and enhances soil biological health.
Balancing crop yields with environmental protection requires farming methods that maximise resource efficiency. This research shows that combining maize and soybean crops enhances nutrient uptake, raises overall land productivity, and stimulates beneficial soil biological activity. For growers and agricultural advisors, these results provide clear evidence that cereal-legume intercropping can sustain soil fertility and improve farming efficiency without relying solely on intensive monoculture.
This research applies directly to commercial growers, agronomists, and agricultural extension services looking to refine crop management practices. As the research evaluated standard field-planting arrangements rather than unproven products, the approach is applied and tested for farm adoption. Commercial users must, however, weigh the economic benefit of substantially higher maize yields against reduced soybean yields to determine the financial viability of this cropping pattern.
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Intercropping, a widely adopted agricultural practice worldwide, aims to increase crop yield, enhance plant nutrient uptake, and optimize the utilization of natural resources, contributing to sustainable farming practices on a global scale. However, the underlying changes in soil physio-chemical characteristics and enzymatic activities, which contribute to crop yield and nutrient uptake in the intercropping systems are largely unknown. Consequently, a two-year (2021-2022) field experiment was conducted on the maize/soybean intercropping practices with/without nitrogen (N) fertilization (i.e., N<sub>0</sub>; 0 N kg ha<sup>-1</sup> and N<sub>1</sub>; 225 N kg ha<sup>-1</sup> for maize and 100 N kg ha<sup>-1</sup> for soybean ) to know whether such cropping system can improve the nutrients uptake and crop yields, soil physio-chemical characteristics, and soil enzymes, which ultimately results in enhanced crop yield. The results revealed that maize intercropping treatments (i.e., N<sub>0</sub>MI and N<sub>1</sub>MI) had higher crop yield, biomass dry matter, and 1000-grain weight of maize than mono-cropping treatments (i.e., N<sub>0</sub>MM, and N<sub>1</sub>MM). Nonetheless, these parameters were optimized in N<sub>1</sub>MI treatments in both years. For instance, N<sub>1</sub>MI produced the maximum grain yield (10,105 and 11,705 kg ha<sup>-1</sup>), biomass dry matter (13,893 and 14,093 kg ha<sup>-1</sup>), and 1000-grain weight (420 and 449 g) of maize in the year 2021 and 2022, respectively. Conversely, soybean intercropping treatments (i.e., N<sub>0</sub>SI and N<sub>1</sub>SI) reduced such yield parameters for soybean. Also, the land equivalent ratio (LER) and land equivalent ratio for N fertilization (LER<sub>N</sub>) values were always greater than 1, showing the intercropping system's benefits in terms of yield and improved resource usage. Moreover, maize intercropping treatments (i.e., N<sub>0</sub>MI and N<sub>1</sub>MI) and soybean intercropping treatments (i.e., N<sub>0</sub>SI and N<sub>1</sub>SI) significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced the nutrient uptake (i.e., N, P, K, Ca, Fe, and Zn) of maize and soybean, however, these nutrients uptakes were more prominent in N<sub>1</sub>MI and N<sub>1</sub>SI treatments of maize and soybean, respectively in both years (2021 and 2022) compared with their mono-cropping treatments. Similarly, maize-soybean intercropping treatments (i.e., N<sub>0</sub>MSI and N<sub>1</sub>MSI) significantly (p < 0.05) improved the soil-based N, P, K, NH<sub>4</sub>, NO<sub>3</sub>, and soil organic matter, but, reduced the soil pH. Such maize-soybean intercropping treatments also improved the soil enzymatic activities such as protease (PT), sucrose (SC), acid phosphatase (AP), urease (UE), and catalase (CT) activities. This indicates that maize-soybean intercropping could potentially contribute to higher and better crop yield, enhanced plant nutrient uptake, improved soil nutrient pool, physio-chemical characteristics, and related soil enzymatic activities. Thus, preferring intercropping to mono-cropping could be a preferable choice for ecologically viable agricultural development.
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DOI: 10.1186/s12870-024-05061-0
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