Yield and yield components of intercropped dual-purpose lablab and cowpea with maize of contrasting maturities

Intercropping is a way to intensify agricultural land use. Cowpea is an important crop in the traditional farming systems in northern Nigeria because it serves to provide food and feed. Although lablab has potential to function in these ways, it remains an underutilized crop because among other factors, there is dearth of information on its incorporation into the system by way of intercropping it with the major cereal crops. A field trial was conducted at Samaru (11o 11’N, 07o 38’E, 686 m asl) in northern Guinea savannah of Nigeria, to evaluate the relative yield and yield components of dual-purpose lablab and cowpea cultivars when gown sole and when intercropped with maize of contrasting maturities. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with four replications. The experiment consisted of early maize maturing cultivar (TZE COMP. 5 W) and a late maize maturing cultivar (TZL COMP. 1 SYN). Cropping system (intercropping and sole cropping) was assigned to the main plot and crop cultivar (lablab: ILRI 4612, NAPRI 2 and cowpea: IT89KD- 288, IT99K-241-2) was assigned to subplots. Results showed that intercropping cowpea or lablab into early maturing maize cultivar was more productive than intercropping into late maturing maize cultivar for number of pods (74.4 vs. 63.9), harvest index (0.22 vs. 0.20), grain yield (575.7 vs. 441.0) and fodder yield (2075.4 vs. 1758.2) for the legumes. Lablab cultivars had superior performance than cowpea for number of pods (113.5-114.2 vs. 81.1-81.5) and fodder yield (2968.9-3042.3 vs. 1725.4-1795.9 kg ha -1 ) whereas cowpea cultivars had superior performance than lablab for harvest index (0.29 vs. 0.17) and grain yield (802.3-833.9 vs. 587.8-632.4 kg ha -1 ), meaning that both legumes have potential in providing food and feed with lablab producing more fodder and cowpea more grain. Land equivalent ratio showed that intercropping advantage was higher when lablab and cowpea were intercropped with early maturing maize cultivar (1.34, 1.24) than with late maturing maize cultivar (1.10, 1.15). It is recommended that for higher lablab or cowpea/maize productivity in an intercrop, farmers should intercrop dual-purpose cultivars of these crops with maize of earlier maturities. Keywords: maize, lablab, cowpea, grain yield, fodder yield