Effects of Maize/Peanut Intercropping on Yield and Nitrogen Uptake and Utilization under Different Nitrogen Application Rates

Yongyong Zhang, Fengyan Zhao, Zhanxiang Sun, Wei Bai (), Zhe Zhang, Chen Feng and Qian Cai
Additional contact information
Yongyong Zhang: College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China
Fengyan Zhao: Institute of Crop Cultivation and Farming System, Liaoning Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenyang 110161, China
Zhanxiang Sun: Institute of Crop Cultivation and Farming System, Liaoning Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenyang 110161, China
Wei Bai: Institute of Crop Cultivation and Farming System, Liaoning Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenyang 110161, China
Zhe Zhang: Institute of Crop Cultivation and Farming System, Liaoning Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenyang 110161, China
Chen Feng: Institute of Crop Cultivation and Farming System, Liaoning Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenyang 110161, China
Qian Cai: Institute of Crop Cultivation and Farming System, Liaoning Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenyang 110161, China

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: The effects of maize/peanut intercropping on crop yields, peanut nodulation, biological nitrogen (N) fixation in peanuts, crop N uptake, and N use efficiency under different N application rates were studied. A long-term maize/peanut intercropping micro-plot experiment was started in 2015. The experiment included the following three planting patterns: maize sole crop (SM), peanut sole crop (SP), and maize and peanut intercropping (intercropping maize: IM; intercropping peanut: IP). Additionally, three N application rates were tested as follows: 0 kg·ha −1 (N0), 150 kg·ha −1 (N150), and 300 kg·ha −1 (N300). The results indicated that N fertilization significantly increased maize yield. Intercropping increased maize yield while decreasing peanut yield across different N application rates. Both N fertilization and intercropping significantly increased the maize harvest index (HI), whereas intercropping decreased the peanut HI under N300. The number and fresh weight of peanut nodules decreased with the increasing N application rate with reductions ranging from 31.15% to 45.23% and 39.60% to 46.67%, respectively. Intercropping increased the number of peanut nodules by an average of 62.56% under the N0 treatment. Intercropping significantly improved the N absorption capacity of the whole intercropping system, and the contribution of maize was higher than that of peanuts. Maize demonstrated a stronger competitive ability for N uptake compared with peanuts in the intercropping system. Intercropping significantly increased the N use efficiency for both maize and peanuts. However, the N use efficiency of maize increased with N application rates, while that of peanut decreased. Compared with sole crops, intercropping increased the partial factor productivity of maize by 55.2% but decreased that of peanuts by 56.3%. In conclusion, at an N application rate of 150 kg·ha −1 , maize/peanut intercropping increased overall crop yield and improved the N absorption and use capacity of maize

Keywords: intercropping; nitrogen fertilizer; yield; nodule; nitrogen use efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/6/893/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/6/893/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:6:p:893-:d:1409014

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().