Studies on Intercropping Soybean with Sugar cane under Different Nitrogen Levels

Morsy, Ahmed Salah; Elwan, Aly; Eissa, Nadia

doi:10.21608/agro.2017.848.1061

Studies on Intercropping Soybean with Sugar cane under Different Nitrogen Levels

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt.

² Sugar Crop Res. Inst., Field Crops Research Institute, Agric. Res. Center, Giza, Egypt.

³ Crop Intensification Res.Sec., Field Crops Research Institute, Agric. Res. Center, Giza, Egypt.

10.21608/agro.2017.848.1061

Abstract

T WO experiments were conducted at Mallawy Agric. Res. Station, Minia Governorate, Egypt during 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 seasons to study the effect of intercropping soybean with sugar cane under different levels of N fertilizer. A split plot design with four replicates was used for both experiments. Main plots were devoted for N levels i.e.195, 210 and 225kg fad-1 of nitrogen. The intercropping patterns of soybean as 100 % sugarcane+30% soybean in one row, 100% sugarcane + 30% soybean in two rows, 100% sugarcane + 40 % soybean in one row, 100 % sugarcane + 40 % soybean in two rows, pure stand of sugar cane and soybean were distributed in sub-plots.
Nitrogen levels had significant effect on most studied characters of soybean. Increasing N levels up to 225kg fad-1 increased all studied traits of yield and yield components of soybean. The highest values of yield and yield components were produced from pure stand compared to intercropping patterns. On the other hand, intercropping pattern of 100% sugar cane+40% soybean in one row gave the highest seed yield. Increasing N level up to 225 kg fad-1 caused significant differences on yield and its components of sugar cane as well as quality parameters and sugar yield fad-1.The highest sugar yield fad-1 was gained from 225kgf ad-1of nitrogen.
Intercropping patterns of soybean on sugar cane had a significant effect on studied characters of sugar cane. 100% sugar cane+40% soybean in one row (2 plants hill-1) gave the highest values. In general, pure stand of sugar cane gave the highest values of juice quality and sugar yield fad-1.The value of Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) is greater than one, which indicates the increasing land productivity per unit area. The highest value of LER (1.56) was obtained by intercropping 40 % soybean in one row (2 plants hill-1) on 100% sugar cane with 225kg fad-1. Aggressivity (Agg) values of sugar cane were positive dominant, while those of soybean were negative dominated intercropping 40 % soybean on 100% sugar cane with 225 kg N fad-1. The actual yield loss (AYL) values for sugar cane and soybean were positive at all patterns intercropping. The highest values of total income and profit obtained from 100 % sugar cane + 40 % soybean in one row (2 plants hill-1) with 225kg fad-1 of nitrogen.

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