Alley Cropping Simulation: An Opportunity for Sustainable Crop Production on Tropical Uplands. | [Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences • 2019]

Author(s):

1. Khalid Hussain: Agro-Climatology Lab., Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad

2. Ayesha Ilyas: Agro-Climatology Lab., Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture,Faisalabad,Pakistan

3. Aftab Wajid: Agro-Climatology Lab., Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture,Faisalabad,Pakistan

4. Ashfaq Ahmad: Agro-Climatology Lab., Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture,Faisalabad,Pakistan

5. Nasir Mahmood: Government College Women University Faisalabad,pakistan

6. Thomas Hilger: Institute of Agricultural Sciences in the Tropics (Hans-Ruthenberg-Institute) (490), University of Hohenheim Stuttgart-,Germany

7. Thanuchai Kongkaew: Department of Soil Science, Kasetsart University,Bangkok,Thailand

Abstract:

Agroforestry, intercropping or grass barriers have a great potential to enhance cropping system's productivity and work as a source of soil conservation on hilly terrain. These soil conservation cropping methods comprise of complex interactions between plant, soil and atmosphere. Sustainability of such cropping systems can be assessed by measuring resources use limitations, above ground biomass production (AGB) and Land Equivalent Ratio (LER). Modeling is an alternate approach to assess such cropping systems sustainability. Water, Nutrient and Light Capture in Agro-forestry System (WaNuLCAS) model was used to investigate the sustainability of various soil conservation maize-based cropping systems and to figure out some mitigation strategies to overcome the resources limitation in-case of competition. A two years field experiment (2010, 2011) with maize alone (monocropping, tillage), maize intercropping with chili and hedgerow with and without fertilization and minimum tillage were used to assess the sustainability of these studied cropping systems on uplands of Thailand. The results revealed that maize AGB was maximum 1.8 g m-2 in intercropping treatment of maize intercropping with chili and hedgerow including fertilizer application and minimum tillage. LER also showed that maize intercropping with chili and hedgerow including fertilizer application and minimum tillage used the resources judiciously to produce higher quantity of maize biomass. Model suggested that small but targeted amount of additional nitrogen and phosphorous application overcome nutrient limitation and sustain productivity of cropping systems. Such management options are easy to practice under field condition and can also be adopted by the local farmer's for sustainable crop production in future.

Page(s): 109-112

DOI: 10.21162/PAKJAS/19.7454

Published: Journal: Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Volume: 56, Issue: 1, Year: 2019

Keywords:

wanulcas , uplands agriculture , land equivalent ratio , soil conservation

References:

References are not available for this document.

Citations

Citations are not available for this document.

Citations

Downloads

Views