Effect of Intercropping Castor with Maize and Beans on Growth, Yield and Seed Oil Content

In Kenya, smallholder farmers have been observed growing castor with maize and beans under an intercropping system amidst little knowledge that such a system could have on the performance of these crops. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of intercropping castor with maize and beans on growth, yield and seed oil content. A 3 × 3 × 2 factorial experiment in randomized complete block design with three levels of crops, three levels of cropping system and two levels of spacing was laid-out at Egerton University farm for three seasons in 2010 to 2012. Results at P =.0001 level of significance indicated high seed yield for castor monocrops in the range of 2.0 - 3.0 tons seeds ha-1 yr-1; while an intercrop of castor at (1.5 m × 1.0 m) with beans at (0.5 m × 0.2 m) spacing showed best cropping mixtures recording yields ranging from 2.15 - 2.43 and 0.3 - 0.83 tons seeds ha-1 yr-1 for castor and beans respectively. In contrast, castor-maize intercrop recorded low maize grain yield ranging from 0.0 – 0.25 tons ha-1 yr-1. Furthermore, castor-beans intercrop had high MAI, IA (962.27) values with LER of 2.34; compared to castor-maize intercrop which recorded negative and low MAI, IA (15.99 – 19.23) and LER (0.98) values. Moreover, intercropping had no significant effect on the seed oil content of castor. It was concluded that castor could be intercropped productively with beans without affecting food crop production and the resultant seed oil content of castor.