“…Some cover crops may reduce the risk of nitrate leaching (Alonso-Ayuso et al, 2018;Rose et al, 2019) while maintaining maize productivity (Salmerón et al, 2011;Marcillo et al, 2019). Therefore, use of cover crops is a choice environmentally and economically viable for maize production (da Silva et al, 2020). However, according to the same authors, this is not a usual practice in low rainfall semi-arid conditions.…”