Nutritional characterisation of the rhizosphere of symbiotic cowpea and maize plants in different cropping system

Abstract

A 2-factorial experiment, involving 3 levels of phosphorus (0, 40, and 80 kg P.ha-I ) as main treatment and 4 cropping systems (mono crop, maize/cowpea inter-row, maize/cowpea intra-row, and maize/cowpea intra-hole cropping) as sub-treatment was conducted in the field for 2 consecutive years in 2003 and 2004 to assess i) the effects of exogenous P supply and cropping system on the concentrations of plant-available nutrients in the rhizosphere of cowpea and maize; ii) the effect of exogenous P supply on tissue concentrations of minerals in nodulated cowpea and maize in mixed plant cultures iii) the effects of exogenous P supply and cropping system on plant growth and N2 fixation, and iv) the effects of exogenous P supply and cropping system on phosphatase activity and microbial biomass in the rhizosphere of cowpea and maize. At harvest, it was found that applying 40 or 80 kg P.ha-I significantly increased cowpea grain yields by 59-65% in 2003 and 44-55% in 2004. With maize, the increases in grain yield were 2037% in 2003 and 48-55% in 2004 relative to zero-P control. In both cropping seasons, the number of pod-bearing peduncles per plant, the number of pods per plant, the number of seeds per pod, and seed yield per cowpea plant were significantly increased with the application of exogenous P. In contrast, these parameters were all significantly depressed by mixed culture relative to mono crop cowpea. Intercropping maize with cowpea produced higher total yields per unit land area than the sole crop counterpart.