Assessment of the agronomic performance of two varieties of soybean as influence by time of introduction of maize and cropping pattern

Field experiments were conducted to assess the effect of time of introduction of maize and cropping pattern on two varieties of soybean in a soybean/maize intercrop in 2007 and 2008 seasons at the University of Agriculture Makurdi. Three periods of introduction of maize were evaluated: (i) planting at the same time with soybean;(ii) introduction of maize two weeks after planting soybean and (iii) introduction of maize four weeks after planting soybean. There were five cropping patterns viz: (i) soybean variety Samsoy-2 planted sole (ii) soybean variety TGX 1448-2E planted sole (iii) maize variety DMR-ESR-Y planted sole (iv) Samsoy -2 intercrop with maize and (v) TGX1448-2E intercrop with maize. The experiment was a split plot laid on complete randomized block design replicated three times. Results obtained revealed that there was no significant effect of time of introduction of maize on any soybean parameter observed. Yield and yield components of soybean indicated significant effect of cropping pattern (P < 0.01) with number of pods per plant and grain yield. Grain yield and number of pods per plant decreased in intercrop with soybean variety Samsoy-2 having the highest number of pods per plant and grain yield. The result on maize indicated that maize planted sole was significantly (P < 0.01) taller than intercropped maize, there was significant (P < 0.01) effect of time of introduction of maize and cropping pattern on maize plant height, ear length, ear diameter, survival and barrenness percentage and grain yield. The Land Equivalent ratio (LER) values indicated that higher yield advantages were obtained from maize introduced two weeks after planting soybean and maize intercropped with soybean variety Samsoy-2 (1.35) than with soybean variety TGX1448-2E (1.12)