Effects of Groundnut and Green Manure Legumes Intercropped to Maize on the Yields of Intercrop Maize in the Forth Repetitive Cropping

Amnat Suwanarit¹, Jarong Rungchuang², Suparb Buranakarn¹, and Somporn Thongdaeng²

1.                          Department of Soil Science, Faculty of  Agriculture, Kasetsart University, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900.

2.                          National Corn and Sorghum Research Center, Kasetsart University, Pakchong, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

………………………….

 

A field experiment was conducted on Pakchong soil series (Reddish Brown  Lateritic Group or Oxic Paleustult) at the National Corn and Sorghum Research Center to examine cumulative effects of annual repetitive intercropping groundnut and green manure legumes to maize for four times on the yields of the forth-year intercrop maize.  The green-manure legumes studied were thorn-less mimosa, sword bean, pigeon pea, and lab lab.  The green manure legumes of each cropping were allowed to grow after harvesting maize ears and were then chopped and ploughed in to soil about one month before annual cropping.

            From results the present experiment, conclusions were drawn as follows: 1) Among the intercrop system, the maize-mimosa intercrop system was the best in maize grain production and produced grain of the intercrop maize in the forth-year repetitive cropping that was in the range of 130-200% of that of the sole maize system.  2) All of the other maize-legume intercrop systems were comparative to the sole maize system regarding grain yields of the maize in the forth-year repetitive cropping.

 

 

 

Amnat4