ABSTRACT
Intercropping is a multiple cropping practice that involves growing two or more crops in proximity in order to achieve optimum yield. The Rainforest Agro-ecology of Nigeria has a great potential for maize and soybean production but this is not often realized because of the sole cropping system. A field trial was conducted during the late cropping seasons of 2017 and 2018 in the Teaching and Research Farm of Crop Science Department at Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City (060 200 50"N, 37’ 23”E, 78 m asl) in a Rainforest of Nigeria. The trial was laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD), replicated four times. The treatment was maize cultivars of contrasting maturities (extra-early, 2000 SYN EE, early maize cultivar TZE COMP.5 W, intermediate maize, WHITE DT STR SYN, late maize, TZL COMP.4 C4, late season soybean (TGX1448), obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan and Local maize cultivar as control was obtained from Evbuobanos village in Edo state, all in Nigeria. The attributes measured for maize were plant height, number of ears, grain yield, 1000-seed weight, and stover yield; soybean attributes were plant height, number of branches and number of pods, 100-seed weight, grain yield and stover yield. Results showed that cropping system had no influence on maize attributes. Year and maize cultivars influenced maize attributes. Local cultivar had higher plant height than improved cultivars. Year x cultivar interaction was significant for number of ears. TZL COMP. 4 C4 had the highest number of ears. For soybean, year influenced plant height, 100-seed weight, grain and fodder yields except for number of branches and number of pods. Total LER1 (tLER1) was above 2 when these two cultivars, extra early and intermediate were intercropped with soybean. Therefore, intermediate maize cultivar and late maize cultivar and late soybean cultivar intercropping system may be recommended for farmers in the Rainforest Agro-ecological zone of Nigeria.
