Pigeonpea Yield and Water Use Efficiency: A Savior under Climate Change-Induced Water Stress

Agronomy

Misheck Musokwa¹  Paramu Mafongoya¹ 

[1] School of Agriculture, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Earth and Environmental Science Bag X01, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa;

关键词: drought;    food security;    intercropping;    smallholder farmers;   

DOI  :  10.3390/agronomy11010005

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Frequent droughts have threatened the crop yields and livelihoods of many smallholder farmers in South Africa. Pigeonpea can be grown by farmers to mitigate the impacts of droughts caused by climate change. An experiment was conducted at Fountainhill Farm from January 2016 to December 2017. The trial examined grain yield in addition to water use efficiency (WUE) of pigeonpea intercropped with maize versus sole pigeonpea and maize. A randomized complete block design, replicated three times, was used. Soil water tension was measured at 20, 50, and 120 cm within plots. The highest and lowest soil water tension was recorded at 20 m and 120 m respectively. Combined biomass and grain yield were significantly different: pigeonpea + maize (5513 kg ha⁻¹) > pigeonpea (3368 kg ha⁻¹) > maize (2425 kg ha⁻¹). A similar trend was observed for WUE and land equivalent ratio (LER), where pigeonpea + maize outperformed all sole cropping systems. The inclusion of pigeonpea in a traditional mono-cropping system is recommended for smallholder farmers due to greater WUE, LER and other associated benefits such as food, feed and soil fertility amelioration, and it can reduce the effects of droughts induced by climate change.

【 授权许可】

Unknown