ABSTRACT

Two field experiments were conducted from August to November 2017, April to July 2018 planting seasons at Eastern Farm of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State to determine the effect of Row plant population and zinc micronutrient application in a Maize-Mungbean intercropping scheme. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) replicated three times. Treatments included two different population density of mungbean (106,666 plants/ha and 133,333 plants/ha) and three level of zinc application rate (0kg/ha, 2kg/ha and 4kg/ha). The result obtained showed that intercropping of maize-mungbean population and zinc rate interactions significantly influence growth yield and yield components in both maize and munbean plants. The result among sole maize indicated that the highest grain yield of 2.69 t/ha and 4.04 t/ha was recorded at sole maize + Zn (4kg/ha) in the 2017 and 2018 cropping seasons. The highest yield of maize grain in the intercrops were 3.58 t/ha and 3.86 t/ha which was recorded in Maize + Mungbean (106,666 plants/ha) + Zn (4kg/ha) in 2017 and Maize + Mungbean (133,333 plants/ha) + Zn (2kg/ha) in the 2018 cropping seasons respectively. Similarly, the interaction of mungbean population with maize and zinc rate application when considered, showed that mungbean grain yield in the sole cropping gave the maximum yield of 720kg/ha at sole mungbean (133,333 plants/ha) + Zn (4kg/ha) in 2017 and 1182 kg/ha at sole Mungbean (106,666 plants/ha) + Zn (2kg/ha) in the 2018 cropping seasons respectively. The highest mungbean grain yield of 777kg/ha was recorded by Maize+Mungbean (133,333 plants/ha) + Zn (4kg/ha) in 2017 and 945kg/ha at Maize + Mungbean (133,333 plants/ha) + Zn (4kg/ha) in the 2018 season respectively among the intercropped scheme. Based on the cropping system, sole cropping gave the highest grain yield in the two cropping seasons with 482kg/ha in 2017 and 750kg/ha in the 2018 cropping season. Also, the interaction of Zn (4kg/ha) gave the highest yield in the 2017 while Zn (2kg/ha) gave the highest yield in the 2018 cropping seasons respectively. The maximum value of Total land equivalent ratio, Land Equivalent Co-efficient and  % land save of 1.76, 0.76 and 43.18 were obtained at Maize + Mungbean (133,333 plants/ha) + Zn (2kg/ha) in 2017 season while that of 2018 season were 1.51, 0.54 and 33.77 was recorded by maize + mungbean (106,666 plants/ha) + Zn (2kg/ha). These results indicated that row plant population density and zinc rate application are important factors determining the productivity of intercropped and zinc micronutrients fertilizer applied to obtain adequate yield.