Mitigating Plant and Soil Health Options through Climate Resilient Maize-Mungbean Based Intercropping for Rainfed Agriculture

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at National Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Islamabad to evaluate the response of intercropping in maize and mungbean with implementation of vermicompost (VMC) and chemical fertilizer (CF). The experiment was laid down in RCBD with split plot arrangement having three replications. The main treatments were cropping practices; sole maize (SM), sole mungbean (SM) and intercropped maize mungbean (M-Mb) though sub treatments included nutrient management practices; vermicompost (VMC) and chemical fertilizer (Urea + DAP) (CF).  The data was recorded for plant parameters of chlorophyll content (mg/g), rate of photosynthesis (µmol/s), intercellular CO2 (ppm), protein content (%) and grain yield (kg/ha) while soil parameters that were estimated included are; soil pH, electric conductivity (dS/m), cation exchange capacity (cmol/kg), exchangeable Ca (cmol/kg), exchangeable Mg (cmol/kg), soil organic matter content (%), available N (ppm), available P (ppm), available K (ppm). The analysis of the data revealed that all of the studied traits were significantly affected by the intercropping. The increased value of chlorophyll content (67.12 and 61.07 mg/g) was obtained in intercropped maize-mungbean (M-Mb) with vermicompost (VMC) treatment, maximum rate of photosynthesis (25.33 and 20.76 µmol/s) was obtained by maize and mungbean in maize-mungbean (M-Mb) intercropping along with vermicompost (VMC) treatments. Correspondingly, protein content (28.15 and 16.43 %) and grain yield (9246.1 and 1610.71 kg/ha) for maize and mungbean were improved by the application of maize-mungbean (M-Mb) and vermicompost (VMC) treatments. There was also increase in the values of soil pH EC (6.44), CEC (44.31 cmol/kg), exchangeable Ca (6.42 cmol/kg), exchangeable Mg (2.21 cmol/kg), SOM content (0.78%), available N (2.98 ppm), available P 18.67 ppm) and available K 198.76 ppm) with the implementation of vermicompost and maize-mungbean intercropping treatments. Overall, the study revealed that intercropping is a best way of increasing crop yield and quality along with the amendment of vermicompost, also bringing positive changes in the soil properties and health.