TITLE:
Growth, Development and Yield of Component Crops in a Maize-Cowpea Intercrop System in the Sudan Savannah Zone in Ghana
AUTHORS:
Listowell Aditwin Akologo, Harrison Kwame Dapaah, Margaret Esi Essifie, Julius Yirzagla, Emmanuel Aziiba Asibi
KEYWORDS:
Agro-Ecological, Ecosystem Services, Phenological Development, Component Crops
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.13 No.2,
February
5,
2026
ABSTRACT: A maize-cowpea intercrop multi-location study was conducted at the experimental fields of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI) at Manga, Binduri District and at the Presbyterian Agricultural Station (PAS) at Garu, in the Garu District from July to October 2021 and 2022 cropping seasons. The objective of the study was to determine the influence of a maize-cowpea intercrop system on the growth, development and yield of maize and cowpea in a multi-location trial as a climate-smart agriculture innovation to increase crop productivity in the Sudan Savannah Agro-Ecological zone in Ghana. The study was a 3 × 3 factorial experiment laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. The factors studied were (A) Row arrangements: [(i)1 row maize altenating with 1 row cowpea (1M:1C), (ii) 2 rows maize altenating with 2 rows cowpea (2M:2C) and (iii) 3 rows maize alternating with 3 rows cowpea (3M:3C)] and (B) Relative times of planting: [(i)Simultaneous planting of maize and cowpea (SIM), (ii) maize planted 2 weeks before cowpea (M2WBC) and cowpea planted 2 weeks before maize (C2WBM)]. Sole maize and sole cowpea crops were included in the treatments. The intercropping systems largely enhanced phenological and growth variables of the component crops. Generally, the yields of both maize and cowpea were significantly higher than the yields of sole maize and cowpea at both Garu and Manga in 2021 and 2022. The simultaneous planting at 2M:2C produced the highest maize yield of 13.33 t/ha while the lowest grain yield (1.40 t/ha) of maize came from Manga in 2021. However, the highest cowpea yield was obtained when cowpea was planted 2 WBM at 1M:1C (3.79 t/ha). It is recommended that farmers with priority for maize yields could adopt planting the two crops simultaneously at 2M:2C row arrangement for maximum maize yields and farmers with priority for cowpea yields could adopt planting cowpea 2 weeks before maize at 1M:1C to maximize cowpea yields.