22 Research on World Agricultural Economy | Volume 02 | Issue 04 | December 2021 Distributed under creative commons license 4.0 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.36956/rwae.v2i4.450 Research on World Agricultural Economy http://ojs.nassg.org/index.php/rwae Comparative Study on Profitability of Sorghum-Legumes Intercropping Systems in Ethiopia Dessalegn Ayana Deressa* Assosa University, Department of Plant Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Assosa, Ethiopia ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history Received: 10 September 2021 Accepted: 27 September 2021 Published Online: 30 September 2021 The imbalance between the crop production and population growth is currently the major issue in Ethiopia. To feed the growing population, increasing the production of food through growing more crop types in the same field as an intercropping is the right strategy. The study was aimed at evaluating the profitability of sorghum-legume intercropping on yield of sorghum. Intercropping sorghum with legumes crops increases the land productivity as its Land Equivalent Ratio is greater than one. In these cases, the land equivalent ratio is greater than one indicating the benefits of intercropping. In general, legume crops contributed to the yield of sorghum either intercropped with legume or grown up using residual contribution of legumes after a year. Therefore, for maximum sorghum production, farmers should plant either as intercrop or after residual effect of legumes crops. In addition to agronomic parameters used to compare the advantages of any cropping system in small scale farming conditions, total gross monetary value is also used to evaluate economic advantages of intercropping system. Keywords: Intercropping Sorghum Legumes LER Monetary value index 1. Introduction Intercropping is one of the commonly used cropping practices in most tropical areas in Africa. It is the grow- ing of two or more crop species simultaneously in the same land during the growing season (Lithourgidis et al., 2011). Shortage of the farm land due to population pres- sure forced to explore new ways to intensify production and productivity per unit area of land (Usmanikhail et al., 2012). Nasri et al. (2014) stated that the benefit of inter- cropping over sole cropping in terms of production per unit area. It is an attractive strategy to increase the produc- tivity and land use efficiency (Seran and Brintha, 2010). Cereal-legume intercropping is the most commonly used practice by smallholder farmers in developing countries because of its environmental as well as economic advan- tages (Willey, 1979). It is also important for better use of resources, improvement of soil fertility, soil conservation and reduction of risks and suppression of weed infestation (Emam, 2003). However, the advantage of intercropping is obtained when correspondent species has differences in crop architecture, maturity time, nutrient use to optimize the use of natural resources and environmental factors when cropped together (Nurbakhsh et al., 2013). Intercropping has an advantage and often provides higher economic benefit than mono cropping (Amanullah et al., 2006). Intercropping productivity and economic benefit was determined by using different evaluating indi- ces. Land equivalent ratio (LER) and monitory advantage index (MAI) are the commonly used indices adopted in intercropping to evaluate intercropping advantages. LER is an indicator to determine the efficiency of intercrop- ping (Kurata, 1986). The value of LER greater than one indicates that the greater efficiency of land utilization in *Corresponding Author: Dessalegn Ayana Deressa, Assosa University, Department of Plant Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Assosa, Ethiopia; Email: ayanadessalegn074@gmail.com 23 Research on World Agricultural Economy | Volume 02 | Issue 04 | December 2021 Distributed under creative commons license 4.0 intercropping due to greater efficiency of resource utili- zation in intercropping (Seran and Brintha, 2010). In gen- eral, in designing alternative crop systems, the common approaches to be followed are crop intensification, crop diversification and cultivar options. However, the three approaches become inseparable and considered as a build- ing block of a new system (Yadav et al., 1998). The main objective of intercropping has been to maximize use of resources, such as space, light and nutrients as well as to improve forage quality and quantity. Most researchers believe that intercropping system is especially beneficial to the smallholder farmers in the low-input and high-risk en- vironments of the tropics (Rana et al., 2001). The principal reasons for smallholder farmers to intercrop are flexibility, profit maximization, risk minimization against total crop fail- ure, soil conservation and improvement of soil fertility, weed management and balanced nutrition (Shetty et al., 1995). Therefore, the objective of this paper is to review research findings and to compare and contrasting for putting future research direction in sorghum-legumes intercropping system profitability in Ethiopia. 2. Sorghum-Legumes Intercropping for Profitability 2.1 Intercrop of sorghum with pigeon pea and cow pea The study is conducted in Yeki District of Sheka zone in Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region. Intercropping sorghum with pigeon pea and cow pea re- sulted in a significant greater unit. For sorghum/ pigeon pea and for sorghum/ cow pea have 0.9 and 1.25 LER values respectively. LER greater than one is considered to be more efficient systems from a land use point of view than mono crops (Willey, 1979). Similarly Musambasi et al. (2001) reported that intercropping maize with different legumes at different locations resulted in greater LER for maize. This indicates that intercropping of sorghum with these legume crops gave advantageous yield than planting them in mono crop Table 1. Table 1. First Year Land Equivalent Ratio for the Effect of Intercropping Sorghum with Legume Treatments Grain yield(KgH-1) (LER) Sole sorghum 3979.62 sole pigeon pea 574.06 sole cow pigeon pea 909.71 sorghum intercropped with pigeon pea 1592.59 sorghum intercropped with cow pea 1879.62 pigeon pea intercropped with sorghum 135.18 0.9 cow pea intercropped with sorghum 430.55 1.25 Source: (Gebremichael et al., 2019) 2.2 The long term effect of intercropping on yield and yield component of sorghum The intercropping of legume on cereals particularly sorghum may accrue some selected nutrients particularly, Nitrogen to the soil which in turns to improve the soil fertility to benefit the subsequent crops. In the first year, all combination of sorghum with leguminous shrubs was evaluated at farm level. Next year, considering the advan- tage of leguminous shrubs to soil fertility, only sorghum as a test crop was evaluated with respect to yield and yield components after planting in the plot of pigeon pea, cowpea and under intercropped condition with legume. According to Carsky et al. (2001), cereal yield is usually higher after a legume crop than after a cereal crop. The Table 2 depicted that 74.0% sorghum yield change was observed when planted under intercropped condi- tion of sorghum with pigeon pea. It also observed that, planting sorghum under sorghum-cowpea intercropped condition maximize the yield of sorghum by 41.8%. How- ever, the yield of sorghum planted under sole condition is decreased from 2379 kg ha-1 to 1995 kg ha-1. Table 2. The Long Term Effect of Intercropping Sor- ghum-leguminous on Yield and Yield Component of Sorghum Treatments Plant Height (cm) grain yield ( Kgha-1) plot of Sole sorghum 226.2 1995c plot of sole pigeon pea 259.2 2885a plot of sole cow pea 228.4 255ab plot of sorghum intercropped with pigeon pea 227.6 2770a plot of sorghum intercropped with cow pea 228.3 2665ab Mean 233.94 2573 CV (%) 17.62 30.36 LSD (0.005) 95.08 1800 Source: (Gebremichael et al., 2019) The study of Pal and Sheshu (2001) reported the direct and residual contribution of legumes to the yield and N up take of maize and found that all the legume crops contrib- uted to the yield of maize. Generally, using pigeon pea in rotational system is more profitable than using intercrop- ping sorghum with cow pea. 2.3 Intercrop of sorghum with soybean and Groundnut for striga weed control In traditional African cropping, prolonged fallow, crop rotation and intercropping were the common practices that DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.36956/rwae.v2i4.450 24 Research on World Agricultural Economy | Volume 02 | Issue 04 | December 2021 Distributed under creative commons license 4.0 kept Striga infestation in tolerable level. This parasitic weed cause estimated yield losses that range from 40 to 100% when the infestation is very serious, especially in northern, north western and western parts of the Ethiopia where sorghum cropping is the most suitable choice for farmers (Kidane, 2014). The intercrop of sorghum with soybean and Groundnut study is conducted on selected farmer’s fields where striga infestations have been rela- tively higher at all cropping season. Therefore, intercrop- ping of sorghum with soybean and groundnut research is used to control striga from sorghum field Table 3. Both soybean and groundnut planted as pure stands recorded greater yield of (1190.1 kg/ha and 1115.3 kg/ha respectively) than that produced from intercropped with sorghum (Table 3). The higher yield of sole soybean and groundnut could be attributed to the least competition in pure stands. In other intercropping research finding Ljoyah (2014) concluded that higher yield of soybean form sole cropping than that produced from intercropped soybean due to the shading effect of maize over soybean. Among the differ- ent intercrops higher grian yield was recorded by soybean (1123.2 kg/ha) when intercropped with sorghum in si- multaneous single alternate row arrangements, followed by relay croppings of sorghum-soybean. Grain yield of groundnut was recorded relatively lower in intercropping with sorghum due to severe competition for growth re- sources. 2.4 Yield advantages of the intercropping One of the main objectives of intercropping is increas- ing productivity per unit area. The productivity and benefit of the maize-common bean intercropping were evaluated by using land equivalent ratio (LER) and monitory ad- vantage index (MAI), respectively. Land equivalent ratio (LER) is used for estimating advantages or disadvantages of intercropping over sole cropping system (Dhima et al., 2007). Based on the result, the intercropping treatments had higher LER than monoculture, which indicated the superiority of intercropping over sole cropping. Gross Monetary Value (GMV) was determined to evaluate the economic advantage of intercropping system as compared to sole cropping (Willey, 1979). GMV was computed from the yield of sorghum, and soybean and cowpea component crops by multiplying the yields with their respective unit price. The total values obtained from the component crops were used to indicate the Gross Monetary Value. Accord- ing to Kinde et al.(2015), report to estimate the GMV of component crops, sorghum grain yield is valued at an average open market price of 7.00 ETB kg-1, soybean and cowpea each at 4 ETB kg-1 at the time of crop harvest in Daro Labu District, West Hararghe. 3. Conclusion The most important strategy to increase agricultural output is the development of intercropping system, which is tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses. Sorghum grain yield is significantly affected due to effect legumes-sor- ghum cropping system. Under these scenarios inter- cropping gave high yield advantage over sole cropping. Intercropping sorghum with legumes provides significant seasonal control of Striga and enhanced grain yields. The general plant community interaction has no parallel in- teraction for sorghum-legume intercropping systems but Table 3. Yield of Sorghum, Soybean and Groundnut and Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) as Influenced by Cropping Sys- tem and Row Striga Population in 2014 & 2015 Treatments Grain yield (KgH-1) (LER) Number of Striga per m2 in 2014 Number of Striga per m2 in 2015 Sole sorghum 1481.2 8.00a 7.97a Sole soya bean 1190.1 7.73a 6.37ab Sole groundnut 1115.3 7.90a 6.10ab Sorghum intercropped with soybean 1307.9 0.88 7.82a 4.57b Sorghum intercropped with groundnut 1766 1.2 7.33a 6.37ab Soybean intercropped with sorghum 1123.2 1.8 Groundnut intercropped with sorghum 1010.4 2.1 LSD(0.005) NS 2.55 Source: (Fitsum et al., 2016) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.36956/rwae.v2i4.450 25 Research on World Agricultural Economy | Volume 02 | Issue 04 | December 2021 Distributed under creative commons license 4.0 some legumes- sorghum have synergetic interaction in the pattern and most of the legume crops are interact as com- panion effect on the sorghum crop yield. 4. Future Line of Work The following points are future direction of work in the area: i. The research studies are should focus in different en- vironments to assess the performance of the legumes in a range of soil types, weeds species and moisture stress. ii. Introduce farmers in order to get huge monetary benefits along with better quality production by us- ing intercropping legume with sorghum. The result of some study showed that farmers would earn more income from intercropping crops than growing crops in sole cropping. iii. Generally, intercropping is also used as an additional option to farmers to increase land use efficiency. References [1] Lithourgidis, A.S., Vlachostergios, D.N., Dordas, C.A. and Damalas, C.A. 2011. Dry matter yield, nitrogen content, and competition in pea–cereal in- tercropping systems. European J. Agron. 34(4): 287- 294. [2] Yadav, R.L., Prasad, K. and Dwivedi, B.S. (1998). Cropping systems research. Pp. 193-213. In: R.L Ya- dav, P. Singh, and R. 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