Intercropping Maize with Faba Bean Improves Yield, Income, and Soil Fertility in Semiarid Environment

Tesfay Gidey; Daniel Hagos Berhe; Emiru Birhane; Yirga Gufi; Bereket Haileslassie

doi:10.1155/2024/2552695

Intercropping Maize with Faba Bean Improves Yield, Income, and Soil Fertility in Semiarid Environment

Scientifica (Cairo). 2024 Mar 5:2024:2552695. doi: 10.1155/2024/2552695. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Tesfay Gidey¹, Daniel Hagos Berhe², Emiru Birhane^{3

4

5}, Yirga Gufi⁶, Bereket Haileslassie⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plant Science, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Adigrat University, P.O. Box 50, Adigrat, Ethiopia.
² Department of Natural Resources Management, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Adigrat University, P.O. Box 123, Adigrat, Ethiopia.
³ Department of Land Resource Management and Environmental Protection, College of Dryland Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
⁴ Institute of Climate and Society, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
⁵ Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Ås, Norway.
⁶ Ethiopian Forest Development, Mekelle Centre, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
⁷ Tigray Agricultural Research Institute, Mekelle Soil Research Center, P.O. Box 1070, Mekelle, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Continuous adoption of improved maize varieties in the last three decades has changed farm landscapes from heterogeneity to maize homogeneity in semiarid areas of Ethiopia. This has substantially decreased maize productivity. Recently, farmers have integrated faba bean into maize-based farming systems aimed at increasing productivity. Yet, there is limited information on the effects of maize-faba bean intercropping on productivity and land-use efficiency. We studied the effects of maize intercrops with two faba bean varieties (Gora and Moti) at three different densities (25, 50, and 75%) of the recommended sole faba bean (250,000 plants ha^-1) on yield, economic return, and some soil fertility indicators in Tigray, northern Ethiopia. Randomized complete block design with three replications was used for the experiment. The intercrops revealed that a significantly higher total grain yield, economic revenue, and land equivalent ratio (LER) over the sole cropping. Intercrops also showed higher soil organic carbon and total nitrogen compared to the preplanting soil and sole maize. Maize intercropped with the Gora faba bean variety at a density of 50% increased the total grain yields, economic return, and LER, respectively, by 13, 42, and 38% over the sole maize. The intercrop also increased soil total N by 55 and 22% compared to the preplanting soil and sole maize, respectively. Intercropping maize with faba bean significantly improved crop yield, income, land-use productivity, and some soil fertility indicators than either the sole maize or faba bean crop in the semiarid region of northern Ethiopia.