Samodimo Ngwako
Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Botswana
Title: Effect of phosphorus on yield and nutrient uptake of cowpea and maize intercrop
Biography
Biography: Samodimo Ngwako
Abstract
A field experiment to determine to effect of phosphorus on yield and uptake of nutrients on maize and cowpea intercrop was conducted at Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN). The experiment design was a split-plot with four levels of phosphorous (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg/ha) as the main treatments, three cropping systems as sub-treatments being intercropped maize and cowpea, sole maize and sole cowpea, and two varieties Kalahari Early Pearl (KEP) maize and Tswana cowpea. The application of phosphorus did not show significant difference in the plant dry matter, but significant differences were observed in the cropping systems for the dry matter and macro- and micro-nutrients. Intercropped cowpea produced the highest whole plant dry matter compared to sole cowpea. High contents of N, P, K, Mg, Ca, Mn and Mo in the dry matter were observed in sole and intercropped cowpea, with intercropped maize showing the lowest contents of the nutrients expect for Mo, where sole maize was lowest. The application of phosphorus showed significant difference in seed yield for P, K and Mg. The seed of monocropped cowpeas showed the highest contents of P, K, Ca, Mg and Na, whereas Cu showed the highest amount in intercropped cowpea seeds. Significant interaction between the phosphorus application and cropping systems was observed in the uptake of Fe and Cu in the plant dry matter, and Ca, Mg, Na and Cu in the cowpea seeds.