Role of soil fertility management on productivity of sesame and cowpea under different cropping systems

ABSTRACT Declining land productivity associated with decreasing soil organic carbon and nutrients is a significant issue in monoculture production. The field experiment with different rates of fertilizer systems (60 kg ha1 N + 100 kg ha1 P, 300 kg ha1 Bioorganic (organic fertilizer), 3 kg ha1 Bioumik (biofertilizer), 30 kg ha1  N + 50 kg ha1 P + 150 kg ha1 Bioorganic fertilizer and 30 kg ha1 N + 50 kg ha1 P + 1.5 kg ha1 Bioumik) as main effects and five cropping systems (sole sesame, sole cowpea, 50:50 sesamecowpea intercropping, 75:25 sesamecowpea intercropping and 25:75 sesamecowpea intercropping) as subplot effects were carried out to study the influence of fertilizer systems application on productivity in intercrops and monocultures. Intercropping of 50:50 sesamecowpea compared to monoculture plots was highly productive in terms of land equivalent ratio (1.03), area time equivalent ratio (1.04) and land use efficiency (155%). Across fertilizer systems, the greater values of land equivalent ratio (1.24), area time equivalent ratio (1.25) and land use efficiency (186%) were obtained from 30 kg ha1 N + 50 kg ha1 P + 150 kg ha1 Bioorganic. The results indicate that fertilizer application rate of 30 kg ha1 N + 50 kg ha1 P + 150 kg ha1 Bioorganic and intercropping of 50:50 sesamecowpea could be an effective pathway in raising of productivity toward sustainable agriculture through maximum exploitation of the biological potential for efficient acquisition of P, N and other resources.