Review article EFFECT OF INTERCROPPING ON RESOURCES USE, WEED MANAGEMENT AND FORAGE QUALITY

Intercropping cereal and grain legume crops helps maintain and improve soil fertility, because crops such as cowpea, mung bean, soybean and groundnuts accumulate from 80 to 350 kg nitrogen ha -1 . The main advantage of intercropping is the more efficient utilization of the available resources and the increased productivity compared with each sole crop of the mixture. Intercropping can conserve soil water by providing shade, reducing wind speed and increasing infiltration with mulch layers and improved soil structure. Enhanced productivity of multispecies agroecosystems (intercropping) compared with that of monospecific agro ecosystems (each of the component species being grown alone) may be explained by two major processes that result in improved resource use: complementarity and facilitation.