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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1473786
This article is part of the Research Topic Food-Energy-Water-Carbon-Nitrogen Nexus Mechanisms and Practices for Sustainable Crop Systems View all 3 articles

Enhancing production efficiency through optimizing plant density in maize-soybean strip intercropping

Provisionally accepted
Guanghao Li Guanghao Li Yuwen Liang Yuwen Liang Qiannan Liu Qiannan Liu Jinghan Zeng Jinghan Zeng Qingming Ren Qingming Ren Guo Jian Guo Jian Fei Xiong Fei Xiong Dalei Lu Dalei Lu *
  • Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Due to limited arable land resources, intercropping has become an efficient and sustainable production method to increase total grain yield per unit land area. Maize-soybean strip intercropping (MSSI) technology is being widely promoted and applied nationwide in China.However, the combination of optimal density for achieving higher production efficiency of soybean and maize remain unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the differences of yield, economic benefits, land and nitrogen (N) efficiency in MSSI system under different density.Five maize/soybean density combinations (67500/97500 plants ha -1 , D1; 67500/120000 plants ha -1 , D2; 67500/142500 plants ha -1 , D3; 60000/142500 plants ha -1 , D4; 52500/142500 plants ha -1 , D5) were set under the same N input in the field experiment. The results demonstrated that optimizing the density in intercropping system could enhance production efficiency. Increasing the density of soybean and maize significantly increased the total grain yield (D3>D2>D1>D4>D5). The D3 with the best comprehensive performance promoted the increase of leaf area index, dry matter accumulation, N absorption and utilization. Path analysis indicated that density had the most substantial impact on maize yield, while grain number had the greatest influence on soybean yield, and the contribution rates to yield were 49.7% and 61.0%, respectively. Therefore, the results provide a more valuable field density for the summer planting area of MSSI, thus facilitating the wider adoption of this mode.

    Keywords: Maize-soybean strip intercropping, density, yield, nitrogen use efficiency, sustainable production

    Received: 31 Jul 2024; Accepted: 13 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Liang, Liu, Zeng, Ren, Jian, Xiong and Lu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Dalei Lu, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China

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