Enhancing the systems productivity and water use efficiency through coordinated soil water sharing and compensation in strip-intercropping

Scientific Reports
Guodong ChenQiang Chai

Abstract

In arid areas, water shortage is threating agricultural sustainability, and strip-intercropping may serve as a strategy to alleviate the challenge. Here we show that strip-intercropping enhances the spatial distributions of soil water across the 0-110 cm rooting zones, improves the coordination of soil water sharing during the co-growth period, and provides compensatory effect for available soil water. In a three-year (2009-2011) experiment, shorter-season pea (Pisum sativum L.) was sown in alternate strips with longer-season maize (Zea mays L.) without or with an artificially-inserted root barrier (a solid plastic sheet) between the strips. The intercropped pea used soil water mostly in the top 20-cm layers, whereas maize plants were able to absorb water from deeper-layers of the neighboring pea strips. After pea harvest, the intercropped maize obtained compensatory soil water from the pea strips. The pea-maize intercropping without the root barrier increased grain yield by 25% and enhanced water use efficiency by 24% compared with the intercropping with the root barrier. The improvement in crop yield and water use efficiency was partly attributable to the coordinated soil water sharing between the inter-strips and the compens...Continue Reading

References

Apr 2, 2003·Current Opinion in Plant Biology·Gary H ToenniessenJoseph DeVries
Jun 27, 2007·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Long LiFu-Suo Zhang
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Jan 14, 2017·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Mohsin TanveerUmair Ashraf
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