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Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development (AJAD) - Call for papers!

Physiological and Agronomic Responses to Organic Fertilization and Row Proportion in Cotton (Gossyphium hirsutum L.) and Mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] Intercropping System

(Myanmar), Doctor of Philosophy in Agronomy (University of the Philippines Los Baños)

Dissertation Abstract:

 

Two experiments were conducted from November 2005 to February 2007--one greenhouse experiment at the Department of Agronomy, University of the Philippines Los Baños and one field experiment at the central experiment station of the University of the Philippines Los Baños--to determine the physiological and agronomic responses of cotton varieties to different kinds of organic fertilizer applications, to determine the yield responses of cotton and mungbean when planted in different row proportions, and to evaluate agronomic advantage of cotton and mungbean intercropping over cotton monoculture.

Application of organic fertilizers significantly increased the number of bolls per plant, number of sympodial branches, boll weight, functional leaf area, and harvest index, seed cotton yield per plant, relative growth rate, net assimilation rate, plant height, and total dry matter yield of cotton. These characters increased significantly with increasing level of organic fertilizers. Application of 15 t ha-1 organic fertilizer level had the highest values for all characters.

Composed rice straw showed higher response of different levels of organic fertilizer application than carabao manure. The hybrid variety NSIC Ct 11 generally showed better response of organic fertilizer application than the local variety UPL C-2 for most of the characters.

Intercropping cotton with mungbean at C2M2 row proportion significantly increased functional leaf area index, leaf area duration, net assimilation rate, crop growth rate, dry matter accumulation, plant height, harvest index, and seed cotton yield than those grown in association with cotton at C2M1 and monocrop.

Intercropping mungbean with cotton showed significantly lower leaf area index, crop growth rate, net assimilation rate, total dry matter accumulation, harvest index, and grain yield than mungbean monoculture.

The land equivalent ratio (LER) of cotton intercrops was always higher than the monoculture, indicating that intercropping has greater yield advantage over cotton monocrop. C2M2 showed the LER for both cotton varieties. LER values of intercropped mungbean were lesser than one, while LER values of intercropped mungbean with cotton decreased the yield of the mungbean intercrops.

Path coefficient analysis of yield and yield components showed that the number of sympodial branches, number of bolls plant-1, cotton boll size, and 1,000 seed weight played an important role in determining seed cotton yield. In mungbean, the number of pods plant-1, number of seeds pod-1, shelling percentage, and 1,000 seed weight were strongly associated with the grain yield of mungbean.