Turning biennial into biannual harvest: Long‐term assessment of Arabica coffee–macadamia intercropping and irrigation synergism by biological and economic indices

Abstract

Intercropping that involves coffee (Coffee arabica L.) and macadamia (Macadamia integrifolia Maiden & Betche) can achieve the complementarity between component crops aiming at better use of natural resources, hence resulting in optimum crop production. However, there is no detailed information in the scientific literature about the biological and economic efficiency of coffee–macadamia intercropping. In this work, we evaluated the productivity and economic performance of Arabica coffee–macadamia intercropping under rainfed and irrigated conditions for 13 years (2006–2018) in São Paulo state, southeastern Brazil. In addition, some biological, economic, and competition indices were used to understand the complementarity of companion crops under the intercropping system. Irrigation significantly increased coffee (21%–40%) and macadamia (33%–44%) yields. Despite the greater values of aggressivity and dominance indices of macadamia over coffee crop have been calculated in the rainfed regime, intercropping with macadamia reduced more strongly coffee yield under irrigation. The higher values of land equivalent ratio (LER), land equivalent coefficient (LEC), percentage yield difference (PYD), income equivalent ratio (IER), and relative net return index (RNRI) indicated relatively higher benefits of intercropping under rainfed regime than under irrigation. The intercropping systems were more productive than monocrops, reaching 215% more yield, 3.2‐fold more gross income under rainfed conditions. The synergy of the combined use of irrigation and intercropping technologies decreased the payback period and the highest values of coffee equivalent yield (CEY) and monetary advantage index (MAI) under irrigation indicated a cumulative effect on the profitability. Here, for the first time, we demonstrated the complementarity between Arabica coffee and macadamia under the intercropping system, at least up to 13 years after planting of the crops, and suggest that it may be a viable option to optimize the use of resources, food production, and ecosystem services, making agricultural profitability more sustainable and stable.

Nitrogen fertilization coupled with iron foliar application improves the photosynthetic characteristics, photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency, and the related enzymes of maize crops under different planting patterns

“…However, these indices were further improved when intercropping was treated with nitrogen fertilizer combined with iron foliar applications. The improved physio-agronomic indices in intercropping were mainly because of the better utilization of the available natural resources (i.e., land, water, light, and nutrients) (Shao et al, 2020;Soratto et al, 2022). The previous results of maize-alfalfa intercropping supported our findings (Borghi et al, 2012;Nasar et al, 2020a;Shao et al, 2020).…”

“…If the value of LER is less than 1, it indicates that interspecific competition is greater than interspecific facilitation, and there is no intercropping advantage. So, the higher the LER, the greater the benefit of increasing yield in intercropping over monocropping (Soratto et al, 2022).…”

Smallholder farmers' knowledge on the use of bioslurry as a soil fertility amendment input for potato production in Kenya

“…Farmers applied fertilizer as they perceived that the economic returns of the crop do not outweigh the risks associated with climate change. However, on the optimistic side, organic amendments are of great benefit and help in mitigating the effects of soil acidity on both soil ecosystem and crop productivity (Ding et al, 2020; Maitra & Gitari, 2020; Soratto et al, 2022; Xu et al, 2014).…”

Nitrogen fertilization coupled with foliar application of iron and molybdenum improves shade tolerance of soybean under maize-soybean intercropping

“…If the value of LER is less than 1, indicates interspecific competition is greater than interspecific facilitation, and there is no intercropping advantage. So, the higher the LER, the greater the benefit of increasing yield in intercropping over mono-cropping ( Soratto et al., 2022 ).…”