Crop Management – how does it affect the performance of intercrops?

Intercropping typically results in a higher yield than those of the individual crops. While appropriate management is vital to get the best performance from any crop, this is especially true for mixtures where strategies must account for the management of two contrasting crops and also for any interactions between them. However, developing management recommendations for intercrops is complex because of the high degree of variation in the findings of published studies and the number of different management strategies available, which depend on the components of individual mixtures. The aim of this work was to examine the effects of management options of cereal species and variety and pea variety, on the relative performance of cereal/pea intercrops, with a longer-term objective of incorporating them in more diversified and resilient agro-ecological arable cropping systems less dependent on external inputs.