Competitive Nature In The Corn And Cowpea Intercropping Systems

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted in the spring agricultural season 2020 in one of the agricultural fields in Al-Alam district, north of Tikrit. The field was divided into three replicates, each replicate included eight experimental units in a randomized complete block design RCBD, and each experimental unit included 12 centers, the distance between them was 0.75 m and the length of 3 m. The distance between one pit and another in the yellow corn (popcorn) was 20 cm, while it was 25 cm in the cowpea crop. The results showed that the average values ​​of Lb for cowpea crop are greater than La values ​​for corn in all intercropping systems. This means that the use of cowpea for the available growth requirements of soil, climate, fertilizer and water in intercropping is better than corn, It gave the highest Lb values ​​for cowpea in intercropping systems (1 corn: 3 cowpeas) and (3 corn: 3 cowpeas) amounting to 0.82 and 0.76, respectively. It is noted that the LER  Land Equivalent values ​​were better than Monocropping in intercropping systems (1 corn: 3 cowpeas). ) and (2 corn: 3 cowpeas) and (3 corn: 3 cowpeas), as the LER values ​​were higher than the correct one and reached 1.1 and 1.0, and the highest value was 1.72 in the loading system (3 corn: 3 cowpeas),This is an indication that intercropping systems whose LER values ​​are higher than one are better at making use of the available environmental conditions and growth requirements.