Tillage and intercropping effect on growth and yield of groundnut in maize/groundnut cropping system

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Published: Dec 31, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14456/jsat.2025.5
Keywords:
Canopy height leaf number haulm yield / ha pod yield / ha harvest index and shelling percentage

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CHARLES ILEDUN OYEWOLE
KOGI STATE UNIVERSITY ANYIGBA KOGI STATE
Anne Nnenna EZEOGUERI-OYEWOLE
Department of History and international studies, Kogi state university, Anyigba
Harira Shuaib

Abstract

Due to high population pressure / human activities competing for agriculture land, the need to maximize productivity of available land has become necessary; this has not been achievable in the tropics with monoculture systems where single harvest per season is the practice. Thus, this study evaluates crop combination and tillage practice on yield and yield components of groundnut in mixture with maize. The trial was conducted in the rainy seasons of 2020 and 2021, at the Kogi State University Students’ Research and Demonstration Farm; Latitude 70 301 and Longitude 70 091 E in the Southern Guinea Savannah agro-ecological zone of Nigeria. Treatment consisted of three tillage practices (main plot factor) and five crop combinations (subplot factor) assigned to a 3 x 5 Factorial experiment replicated four times. Sole cropped groundnut performed better than the intercrops regarding yield and yield related parameters.  Better haulm yields were obtained in sole cropped plots (711.11 kg/ha and 637.04 kg/ha, respectively in 2020 and 2021 seasons; better pod yields: 1,532 kg/ha and 1,367 kg/ha, respectively in 2020 and 2021 seasons, better Harvest Index (53.26% and 36.78%, respectively in 2020, 2021 cropping seasons). The treatment recorded the best 100-seed weight in both seasons: 47.83, and 48.32g, respectively in 2020, 2021 cropping seasons. It also gave the best shelling percentage: 61.00% and 79.42%, respectively in 2020, 2021 cropping seasons. Relative to LER, among crop combination, the highest LERs were observed when one row of maize was intercropped with one row of groundnut (1.38 and 1.32, respectively in 2020 and 2021 cropping seasons) with the least LER observed when two rows of maize were intercropped with one row of groundnut (1.28 and 1.19, respectively in 2020 and 2021 seasons). Among the tillage practice, zero tillage gave the highest LER (1.28 and 1.42, respectively in 2020 and 2021 seasons) with planting on ridges giving the least LER (1.06 and 1.38, respectively in 2020 and 2021 cropping seasons). Since the highest LER was observed when one row of maize was intercropped with one row of groundnut, this level of crop combination is recommended for the study area.

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How to Cite
OYEWOLE, C. I., EZEOGUERI-OYEWOLE, A. N., & Shuaib, H. (2025). Tillage and intercropping effect on growth and yield of groundnut in maize/groundnut cropping system. Journal of Science and Agricultural Technology, 6(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.14456/jsat.2025.5
Issue
Vol. 6 No. 2 (2025): July-December
Section
Research Article
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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