Arrangement spatial du sorgho (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) en association avec l’arachide (Arachis hypogaea L.) adapté aux conditions soudano-sahéliennes du Nord Cameroun

In North Cameroon, groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a rainfed crop grown on about 140,000 ha of land. Of the total area planted to groundnuts, 50% is intercropped with sorghum. In the traditional cropping system, the spatial arrangement of sorghum and groundnut is mainly random. Such spatial arrangement significantly reduces groundnut yield as a result of over shading by sorghum plants. An intercropping trial of sorghum and groundnut was conducted for two years in the farm of the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, Maroua, with a view to identify the most suitable spatial arrangement for the two crops under the agro-ecological conditions of North Cameroon. Land equivalent ratio (LER) and density equivalent ratio (DER) were computed using the formulae suggested by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI 1974) and Fornage et al (1986), respectively. The results revealed that an arrangement of one row of sorghum to two rows of groundnut which yielded total LER and DER of 1.25 and 1.15, respectively is the cropping pattern to be recommended to growers of North Cameroon.