Cargando…

The productive performance of intercropping

Crop diversification has been put forward as a way to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture without penalizing its productivity. In this context, intercropping, the planned combination of two or more crop species in one field, is a promising practice. On an average, intercropping saves land...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Li, Chunjie, Stomph, Tjeerd-Jan, Makowski, David, Li, Haigang, Zhang, Chaochun, Zhang, Fusuo, van der Werf, Wopke
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9926256/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36595678
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201886120
_version_ 1784888240648486912
author Li, Chunjie
Stomph, Tjeerd-Jan
Makowski, David
Li, Haigang
Zhang, Chaochun
Zhang, Fusuo
van der Werf, Wopke
author_facet Li, Chunjie
Stomph, Tjeerd-Jan
Makowski, David
Li, Haigang
Zhang, Chaochun
Zhang, Fusuo
van der Werf, Wopke
author_sort Li, Chunjie
collection PubMed
description Crop diversification has been put forward as a way to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture without penalizing its productivity. In this context, intercropping, the planned combination of two or more crop species in one field, is a promising practice. On an average, intercropping saves land compared with the component sole crops, but it remains unclear whether intercropping produces a higher yield than the most productive single crop per unit area, i.e., whether intercropping achieves transgressive overyielding. Here, we quantified the performance of intercropping for the production of grain, calories, and protein in a global meta-analysis of several production indices. The results show that intercrops outperform sole crops when the objective is to achieve a diversity of crop products on a given land area. However, when intercropping is evaluated for its ability to produce raw products without concern for diversity, intercrops on average generate a small loss in grain or calorie yield compared with the most productive sole crop (−4%) but achieve similar or higher protein yield, especially with maize/legume combinations grown at moderate N supply. Overall, although intercropping does not achieve transgressive overyielding on average, our results show that intercropping performs well in producing a diverse set of crop products and performs almost similar to the most productive component sole crop to produce raw products, while improving crop resilience, enhancing ecosystem services, and improving nutrient use efficiency. Our study, therefore, confirms the great interest of intercropping for the development of a more sustainable agricultural production, supporting diversified diets.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9926256
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher National Academy of Sciences
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-99262562023-07-03 The productive performance of intercropping Li, Chunjie Stomph, Tjeerd-Jan Makowski, David Li, Haigang Zhang, Chaochun Zhang, Fusuo van der Werf, Wopke Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences Crop diversification has been put forward as a way to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture without penalizing its productivity. In this context, intercropping, the planned combination of two or more crop species in one field, is a promising practice. On an average, intercropping saves land compared with the component sole crops, but it remains unclear whether intercropping produces a higher yield than the most productive single crop per unit area, i.e., whether intercropping achieves transgressive overyielding. Here, we quantified the performance of intercropping for the production of grain, calories, and protein in a global meta-analysis of several production indices. The results show that intercrops outperform sole crops when the objective is to achieve a diversity of crop products on a given land area. However, when intercropping is evaluated for its ability to produce raw products without concern for diversity, intercrops on average generate a small loss in grain or calorie yield compared with the most productive sole crop (−4%) but achieve similar or higher protein yield, especially with maize/legume combinations grown at moderate N supply. Overall, although intercropping does not achieve transgressive overyielding on average, our results show that intercropping performs well in producing a diverse set of crop products and performs almost similar to the most productive component sole crop to produce raw products, while improving crop resilience, enhancing ecosystem services, and improving nutrient use efficiency. Our study, therefore, confirms the great interest of intercropping for the development of a more sustainable agricultural production, supporting diversified diets. National Academy of Sciences 2023-01-03 2023-01-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9926256/ /pubmed/36595678 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201886120 Text en Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Biological Sciences
Li, Chunjie
Stomph, Tjeerd-Jan
Makowski, David
Li, Haigang
Zhang, Chaochun
Zhang, Fusuo
van der Werf, Wopke
The productive performance of intercropping
title The productive performance of intercropping
title_full The productive performance of intercropping
title_fullStr The productive performance of intercropping
title_full_unstemmed The productive performance of intercropping
title_short The productive performance of intercropping
title_sort productive performance of intercropping
topic Biological Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9926256/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36595678
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201886120
work_keys_str_mv AT lichunjie theproductiveperformanceofintercropping
AT stomphtjeerdjan theproductiveperformanceofintercropping
AT makowskidavid theproductiveperformanceofintercropping
AT lihaigang theproductiveperformanceofintercropping
AT zhangchaochun theproductiveperformanceofintercropping
AT zhangfusuo theproductiveperformanceofintercropping
AT vanderwerfwopke theproductiveperformanceofintercropping
AT lichunjie productiveperformanceofintercropping
AT stomphtjeerdjan productiveperformanceofintercropping
AT makowskidavid productiveperformanceofintercropping
AT lihaigang productiveperformanceofintercropping
AT zhangchaochun productiveperformanceofintercropping
AT zhangfusuo productiveperformanceofintercropping
AT vanderwerfwopke productiveperformanceofintercropping