Record Details

Adaptation of sorghum/maize and sorghum/pearl millet intercrop systems to the toposequence land types in the North Sudanian zone of the west African Savanna

OAR@ICRISAT

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/3577/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0378-4290(87)90064-5
 
Title Adaptation of sorghum/maize and sorghum/pearl millet intercrop systems to the toposequence land types in the North Sudanian zone of the west African Savanna
 
Creator Stoop, W A
 
Subject Millets
Sorghum
 
Description Cereal/cereal intercrop systems are commonly used by farmers in the higher-rainfall areas of the South Sudanian and Guinean savanna zones of West Africa. Towards the North Sudanian zone these systems become less common, because of a shorter rainy season with a more abrupt start and end. However, previous work on the responses of maize (Zea mays), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum) crops to the different toposequence land types indicated that crop mixtures of sorghum/millet for uplands and sorghum/maize for lowlands would be less prone to drought stress and waterlogging risks than would the respective sole crops.

The present studies showed consistent intercropping advantages of at least 25% for sorghum/maize systems when both crops are sown at the same time. The relative advantages from this system were greatest for the uplands.

Intercropping advantages were generally less for the sorghum/millet systems, and it proved essential to delay the millet sowing to prevent serious competition to the sorghum. Sorghum/millet intercropping provides a risk-reducing alternative to sole cropping, because sorghum plants lost during the common early droughts can be replaced by an early-maturing millet sown in July. However, because of the unpredictability of the early-season rainfall, sorghum/millet systems will be difficult to standardize; both the sowing date and the plant densities of the component crops may require adjustments each year in response to the starting date of the rains and the extent to which the sorghum has survived the early-season droughts.
 
Publisher Elsevier
 
Date 1987
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/3577/1/JA_576.pdf
Stoop, W A (1987) Adaptation of sorghum/maize and sorghum/pearl millet intercrop systems to the toposequence land types in the North Sudanian zone of the west African Savanna. Field Crops Research, 16 (3). pp. 255-272.