Fu Jin ¹ Zhihua Wang ¹ Haizhao Zhang ¹ Sirong Huang ¹ Meng Chen ¹ Taiwen Yong ¹ Xiaochun Wang ¹ Feng Yang ¹ Jiang Liu ² Liang Yu ¹ Tian Pu ¹ Akash Fatima ³ Raheela Rahman ⁴ Yanhong Yan ⁵ Wenyu Yang ¹ Yushan Wu ^1*

• ¹ College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
• ² College of Life Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya an, Sichuan Province, China
• ³ Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan
• ⁴ University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan
• ⁵ Department of Grassland Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

Intercropping can improve light interception and crop yield on limited farmlands. The light interception rate in intercropping is determined by row configuration. Quantifying the spatio-temporal light interception of intercrops is very important for improving crop yields by optimizing the row configuration. A two-year field experiment was conducted at two sites to quantify the responses of the light interception rate of intercrops to five treatments: two rows of maize alternated with three rows of soybean (2M3S), two rows of maize alternated four rows of soybean (2M4S), two rows of maize alternated five rows of soybean (2M5S), sole soybean (SS), and sole maize (SM). We developed a multiple regression model based on the sine of the solar elevation angle (sin(h)) and crop leaf area density to quantify the spatio-temporal light interception of intercrops. The predicted light interception rate was positively correlated with the measured values of PAR (R2 > 0.814) and dry matter (R2 > 0.830). Increasing soybean rows led to an increase in light interception of both soybean and the lower layer of maize. However, this also resulted in a decrease in light interception in the upper layer of maize. At the two sites, compared to 2M3S, the annual average cumulative light interception of soybean in 2M5S increased by 44.73% and 47.18%, that of the lower layer of maize in 2M5S increased by 9.25% and 8.04%, and that of whole canopy of maize decreased by 13.77% and 17.74%. respectively. The changes in dry matter and yield of intercrops were consistent with the change in light interception, which further verified the high accuracy of the light interception model. The annual average maize yield of 2M5S was 6.03% and 6.16% lower but the soybean yield was 23.69% and 28.52% higher than that of 2M3S. On the basis of system yield, the best performance was recorded in 2M4S at the two sites. In summary, the newly created light interception model performs well in the quantification of the temporal and spatial changes in crop light interception in strip intercropping and has potential applications in other configurations.