Strip position, tillage, and water regime effects on a strip intercropping rotation

Abstract

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 125 position on crop yields; and 2) to determine the effect of tillage, strip position, and their interaction, on soil water content during the season, and its relationship with crop yields. Explanation of Dissertation. The dissertation is presented in three sections, each a manuscript to be submitted to the scientific journals of the American Society Agronomy, the last two as related papers. The first section, entitled "Strip intercropping rotation of corn (Zea mays L.), soybeans (Glycine max), and oats (Avena sativa): crop yield as affected by strip position", presents the part of the research addressing the first objective. Sections two and three, entitled "Effect of tillage and strip position on soil water content and crop yield in a strip intercropping rotation of corn, soybeans, and oats: I Corn", and "II: Soybeans and oats", present the parts of the research addressing the second objective. Each paper contains an Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, and References. Tables and

Productivity and profitability of strip intercropping systems as implemented by agronomists and farmers

“…However, SB com also yielded more than com in the other treatments at NERC in 1989. There may have been differential soil moisture use by the crops into which com was rotated in 1989, a phenomenon reported by Garcia-Prdchac (1991).…”

“…Competition for moisture between crops plays a large part in determining which crop strips over-yield and which suffer yield reductions. In dry years (Cmse, 1990;Garcia-Prdchac, 1991;Fortin et al, 1994;Choromanska, 1995) or without irrigation (Lesoing and Francis, 1990) this competition can flatten or reverse the overyielding often seen in border rows of com. Garcia et al (1990) found that tillage type affected strip intercrop performance through its effect on soil water, particularly in a dry year.…”

Corn yield response to rotation effect, N fertilizer application and row position in a strip intercropping system

“…Competition for water is a very serious problem in semi-arid environments (Hulbert and Remsberg, 1927). Garcia-Prechac (1991) reported that corn grown next to oat can experience yields reductions under dry conditions and yield increases under wet or normal conditions compared to strip center yields. Moisture effects on border yield was also analyzed by Fortin et al (1994).…”