Agro-Techniques for Lodging Stress Management in Maize-Soybean Intercropping System—A Review

Abstract

Lodging is one of the most chronic restraints of the maize-soybean intercropping system, which causes a serious threat to agriculture development and sustainability. In the maize-soybean intercropping system, shade is a major causative agent that is triggered by the higher stem length of a maize plant. Many morphological and anatomical characteristics are involved in the lodging phenomenon, along with the chemical configuration of the stem. Due to maize shading, soybean stem evolves the shade avoidance response and resulting in the stem elongation that leads to severe lodging stress. However, the major agro-techniques that are required to explore the lodging stress in the maize-soybean intercropping system for sustainable agriculture have not been precisely elucidated yet. Therefore, the present review is tempted to compare the conceptual insights with preceding published researches and proposed the important techniques which could be applied to overcome the devastating effects of lodging. We further explored that, lodging stress management is dependent on multiple approaches such as agronomical, chemical and genetics which could be helpful to reduce the lodging threats in the maize-soybean intercropping system. Nonetheless, many queries needed to explicate the complex phenomenon of lodging. Henceforth, the agronomists, physiologists, molecular actors and breeders require further exploration to fix this challenging problem.

Overview of the advantages and limitations of maize-soybean intercropping in sustainable agriculture and future prospects: A review

“…According to Raza et al (2020), lodging is one of the most persistent constraints in the MSI system, and poses a severe danger to agricultural development and sustainability. Several of the negative effects of lodging in maize include mechanical damage, disease infections, and decreased plant height that reduces light interception effectiveness and results in harvest loss (Lulie, 2017).…”

“…However, when lodging resistance is enhanced in intercropping, not only does it improve harvestable yield or crop quality but also harvest efficiency (Lulie, 2017). Maize, which is prone to lodging when intercropped with legumes such as soybean, has been found to increase lodging resistance when sown at the correct time and density (Raza et al, 2020).…”

A Scientometric Analysis of Worldwide Intercropping Research Based on Web of Science Database between 1992 and 2020

“…The red-colored cluster in Figure 4 is pertaining to crop intercropping as represented with high-frequency keywords of "maize", "yield", "wheat", and "soybean" etc. [59,62,63]. Among them, the "maize" (corn) based intercropping system is the dominant type around the world [31,53,62,63].…”

“…[59,62,63]. Among them, the "maize" (corn) based intercropping system is the dominant type around the world [31,53,62,63]. The green-colored cluster is mainly related to "biodiversity" or "conservation" and management of intercropping systems [34,36,64].…”

Foliar Application of NH4+/NO3– Ratios Enhance the Lodging Resistance of Soybean Stem by Regulating the Physiological and Biochemical Mechanisms Under Shade Conditions

“…Shading is one of the common constrains which can cause the lodging of soybean intercropped with maize plants (Raza et al, 2020). The microclimate of soybean is affected due to the high canopy of maize plants, which hampers the light penetration into the soybean canopy in comparison to normal light (Yang et al, 2014).…”