Farzad Mondani; Amin Yari; Alireza Bagheri; Hamidreza Chaghazardi
Abstract
Objective: Intercropping is one of the most important crop management methods to achieve sustainable agriculture goals. Therefore this study was conducted to evaluate safflower with lentil intercropping under dryland conditions.Methods: The experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design ...
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Objective: Intercropping is one of the most important crop management methods to achieve sustainable agriculture goals. Therefore this study was conducted to evaluate safflower with lentil intercropping under dryland conditions.Methods: The experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications and five treatments during 2018-2019 at the research farm of the Razi University. The experimental treatments included Safflower monoculture, Safflower and Lentil intercropping with 25:75 ratio, Safflower and Lentil intercropping with 50:50 ratio, Safflower and Lentil intercropping with 75:25 ratio, and Lentil monoculture. Safflower was considered as the main plant and Lentil as the alternative plant. The evaluated traits were leaf area index, radiation absorption, crop growth rate, relative growth rate, total dry matter, radiation use efficiency, and grain yield.Results: The results showed that the leaf area index and consequently, radiation absorption in intercropping compared to monoculture increased by 6.2% and 48%, respectively. Trend of changes in safflower’s crop growth rate in intercropping canopy compared to monoculture did not change, but the relative growth rate showed a 7.7%increase. The amount of total dry matter and radiation use efficiency in intercropping canopy did not change much compared to monoculture. Grain yield of Safflower was higher in monoculture (2472 kg.ha-1), which did not significantly differ from the treatments with 75:25 (2294 kg.ha-1) and 50:50 (2107 kg.ha-1) ratio of Safflower and Lentil.Conclusion: Generally, the results showed that the intercropping of safflower with lentils was not economically beneficial, however, alternative intercropping patterns with ratios of 25:75 and 50:50 of safflower and lentil were more efficient in terms of the investigated traits.