¹Department of Agronomy, College of Crop and Soil Sciences Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria.
²Department of Soil Science and Meteorology, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: idaresitidung@yahoo.com; eteng_em@yahoo.com

Accepted 24th June, 2016

A field experiment was carried out in 2010 and 2011 at the Research and Training Farm of Abia State University, Umuahia Campus. The aim of the study was to evaluate the productivity of groundnut/maize intercropping at varying maize planting densities. The experiment was a randomized complete block design replicated 4 times. The result shows that intercropping groundnut with maize at varying densities decreased grain yields of groundnut in both years. Productivity indices indicated that groundnut/maize intercropping was productive, and maize was the dominant component. The productivity of the cropping system was determined using the land equivalent ratio (LER) and gross monetary returns (GMR) for the two years and produce prices of N120/kg and N60/kg for groundnut and maize respectively. The result also showed that intercropping improved resistant red bulk (RRB) groundnut variety at 80,000 with maize at either 40,000 or 48,000 plants/ha and these gave significantly higher gross monetary returns (N4,840.00) than intercropping the local variety. Moreover, intercropping RRB and 48,000 maize plants/ha stand to give the farmer over 10% gross returns above the local, suggesting profitability of the intercropping systems.

Keywords:groundnut, maize, intercrop, LER, GMR, Ultisol, planting density, acid sandstone.

How To Cite This Article:

1Akpan, I. I., 2Eteng, E. U. and 1Willie, E. S. Productivity Assessment of Groundnut (Arachis Hypogaea L.)/Maize (Zea Mays, L.) Intercrop Grown on a Marginal Acid Sandstones Soil. Swift Journal of Agricultural Sciences 2(2), pp. 012-020.