Weed management in grain legumes using an intercropping approach

Summary

Grain legumes benefit the farming system via symbiotic N2 fixation and subsequent residue incorporation contributing to soil fertility together with their effect as break-crop in cereal rich rotations. However, grain legumes are weak competitors towards weeds and consequently weeds constitute a major problem. Since the European policies for reducing the negative effects of agricultural plant production on the environment point to reductions in pesticide use (Mortensen et al., 2000), there is a requirement to further develop strategies to reduce weeds. Intercropping involves the simultaneous growing of several plant species in the same field and the cropping strategy is known to involve interspecific interferences increasing the use of plant growth resources in space and time (Ofori and Stern, 1987) improving crop competitive ability towards weeds (Hauggaard-Nielsen et al., 2001). The main objectives of the present study was to determine the effects of grainlegume-cereal intercropping on the weed biomass production as compared to the respective sole crops using successive harvests in a three-year field study.