Simulation of the Growth and Leaf Dynamic in Quality Protein Maize and Soybean Intercropping Under the Southwestern Savannah Conditions of DR Congo

Abstract

This paper contributes to the development of methodological tools to understand and predict the functioning of cereal-legume crop associations through mathematical approaches, simulating field cultivation. These mathematical models also show that the competition that exists in the mixed culture could be the main aspect that affects the yield in relation to the establishment of cereal monocultures. In this study, it was shown that maize was spatially dominant over soybean in intercrops, specifically in the intercropping corn-soybean intercrop, compared to monoculture, and that the reduction in LAI of soybean had negative effects on its growth and grain yield. The transition from the interlayer spatial arrangement to the trip spatial arrangement of the maize-soybean association allowed an increase in the LAI of the soybean and consequently increased the yield of the soybean which was 78.06% for the interleaving arrangement at 43.59% for trip arrangement. In conclusion, the intercropping spatial arrangement of soybeans in association with maize corresponds to an LAI which favors the increase in seed productivity. However, for maize, LAI remains constant under different spatial arrangements with stable grain yield.