International Journal of Advance Agricultural Research
ISSN: 2053-1265
Vol. 6(8), pp. 101-115, December 2018
doi.org/10.33500/ijaar.2018.06.011

Influence of rhizobial inoculation and crop variety on dry matter accumulation of crops in maize-soybean intercropping system

Shenghui Yang^1,³, Wenhao Chen^1,², Wenfeng Chen¹*, Changfu Tian¹, Xinhua Sui¹ and Wenxin Chen¹

¹State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Beijing 100193; College of Biological Sciences and Rhizobium Research Center, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
²College of Life Science and Food Engineering, Yibin University, Yibin 644000, Sichuan Province, China.
³Shandong Aifudi Biotech. Co., Ltd, Jining 272063, Shandong Province, China.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: aa378912705@163.com, chenwf@cau.edu.cn.

Received 09 August, 2018; Received in revised form 14 September, 2018; Accepted 18 September, 2018.

Abstract

Keywords:
Rhizobial inoculation, Variety, Dry matter accumulation (DMA), Intercropping, Soybean, Maize.

The aim of this study was to assess the best crop variety combination of maize and soybean plants grown in monocropping and intercropping systems. Moreover, the influence of rhizobial inoculation on growth and yield of soybeans plants grown under both cropping systems was also evaluated. Three varieties of soybean (inoculated with rhizobium or not) and three varieties of maize plants were grown in monocropping and in intercropping systems (8 rows soybean, 2 rows maize). Dry matter accumulation (DMA) of plant shoots (maize and soybean) was higher in monocropping than that in intercropping. Rhizobial inoculation increased the yield of soybean in both cropping systems. For the three soybean varieties, no significant difference of the average 100-grain filling rate per day (V_a) was found between the inoculated and non-inoculated plants in both cropping systems. However, significant increases of the V_a were found in the monocropping soybeans than those in the intercropping systems. For the three maize varieties, the highest V_a values were found only in the monocropping treatments. Slight increases of the V_a were observed in maize intercropped with inoculated soybean (MIR) than the maize intercropped with non-inoculated soybean (MI). All the land equivalent ratio (LER) values under intercropping were 1.5 higher than those under monocropping, reflecting the advantage of the intercropping systems. The highest productive value ($5130.7 ha^-1) was obtained in the intercropping combination of maize variety Zhengdan 958 and inoculated soybean variety Xudou 18.