Performance of double cropping and relay intercropping for black soybean production in small-scale farms

We investigated the soybean productivity of double cropping and relay intercropping in farmer’s fields for three years using two black soybean cultivars of Kurozukin and Tanbaguro, which are used for the first and second crop, respectively. Kurozukin is the early maturing cultivar for vegetable soybean harvest and Tanbaguro is the late-maturing cultivar for the harvest of vegetable soybean and seeds. The yield of the first crop (Kurozukin) was similar to the mono cropping regardless of cropping patterns. However, the yield of the second crop (Tanbaguro) was affected by cropping patterns. The yield of Tanbaguro in double cropping was prone to decrease by late sowing. The late sowing was induced by the late sowing and late harvesting of Kurozukin because of the low temperature in April and the large amount of precipitation in rainy season, respectively. In relay intercropping that Tanbaguro was sown between the rows of Kurozukin at about one month before the harvest of Kurozukin, the yield of Tanbaguro was similar to the mono cropping and the competition with Kurozukin was not observed. Thus, the land equivalent ratio value of double cropping was lower than that of relay intercropping. These results suggest that relay intercropping is more useful cultivation system than double cropping to increase the annual soybean production.