TITLE:
Cassava Groundnut Intercropping: A Sustainable Land Management Practice for Increasing Crop Productivity and Organic Carbon Stock on Smallholder Farms
AUTHORS:
Keiwoma M. Yila, Mohamed S. Lebbie, Abdul R. Conteh, Mohamed S. Kamara, Lamin I. Kamara, Mathew L. S. Gboku
KEYWORDS:
Benefit-Cost Ratio, Cassava-Groundnut Intercropping, Land Equivalent Ratio, Soil Organic Carbon, Sustainable Land Management
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.14 No.1,
January
31,
2023
ABSTRACT: Cassava-groundnut intercropping is not a common practice among smallholder farmers in Sierra Leone even though both crops are well suited for intercropping. On-farm trials were conducted in three locations (Bai Largor, Bassah, and Njala Kanima) in the Moyamba district during the 2021 cropping season to investigate the efficacy of cassava-groundnut intercropping for increasing crop productivity and soil organic carbon stock on smallholder farms in the Moyamba district, Southern Sierra Leone. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design in three replications with treatments of sole groundnut, sole cassava and cassava-groundnut intercropping. Data on the yield and yield components of cassava and groundnut were analysed using the PROC MIXED procedure of SAS 9.4 and means were compared using the standard error of difference (SED). The above-ground biomass, number of roots per plant, and fresh root yield of cassava were not significantly (p > 0.05) affected by the cassava-based cropping system. Averaged across locations, intercropping cassava with groundnut decreased the above-ground biomass, the number of roots per plant, and fresh root yield of cassava by 17%, 11%, and 17%, respectively. The above-ground biomass, number of pods per plant and fresh pod yield of groundnut were significantly (p 1), the highest net revenue and benefit-cost ratio. The benefit-cost ratio was also favourable for the sole cassava (BCR > 1) but not favourable for the sole groundnut (BCR