Limited environmental and yield benefits of intercropping practices in smallholder fields: evidence from multi-source data
Limited environmental and yield benefits of intercropping practices in smallholder fields: evidence from multi-source data
Context: To ensure food security in sub-Saharan Africa, it is necessary to improve crop yields while minimizing environmental impacts. Intercropping has been demonstrated to deliver such outcomes, but their performance in smallholder fields has received limited attention therefore insufficient to capture the complexity of real-world crop fields run by smallholder farmers. Objective: This study examines the benefits and management of intercropping practices in real smallholder fields in Malawi. Methods: We collected field data on intercrop types, the number of intercropped species and maize yield in intercropped maize fields. Field data was then combined with geospatial and household survey data to investigate the yield benefits, agricultural inputs, and factors related to intercropping choices. We used Pearson correlation and Tukey's test to test the statistical significance in the difference between intercropped fields and monoculture fields. Results: We found that more intercrops were planted in fields with smaller sizes, drier conditions, and higher soil erosion levels, with adoption rates increasing from 75 % in 2010 to 84 % in 2020. In addition, our field data shows that intercropping is associated with reduced primary maize yield (2.7 t/ha) compared to pure maize yield (3.8 t/ha). Conversely, satellite data demonstrates an improvement in overall field yield in intercropped fields. Meanwhile, intercropped fields require higher labor inputs (11 h more per season) and increased weeding times than monocultures, however agrochemical inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) do not necessarily decrease in intercropped fields compared to monocultures. Conclusions: Our results suggest that while smallholder farmers in Malawi adopt intercropping to improve land use efficiency, drought resilience, and soil fertility, they are not realizing the full benefits observed in experimental trials. Implications: More evidence on the benefits and best practices of intercropping in smallholder fields is necessary in order to better understand this practice as an option for sustainable intensification.
Agrochemical inputs, Drought index, Labor inputs, Monocultures, Satellite data, Sub-Saharan Africa, Yield
Li, Chengxiu
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Kambombe, Oscar
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Chimimba, Ellasy Gulule
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Fawcett, Dominic
5a151559-b8d9-4c50-8468-8badc1c1c09f
Brown, Luke A.
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Yu, Le
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Gadedjisso-tossou, Agossou
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Dash, Jadunandan
51468afb-3d56-4d3a-aace-736b63e9fac8
1 August 2023
Li, Chengxiu
adaf46fc-1573-4c50-bd7f-b2e7ed048f7e
Kambombe, Oscar
1bb3e3f9-86df-4b29-bc5f-95c57b198557
Chimimba, Ellasy Gulule
94ec6aaf-bf9d-4120-b21c-b719e2b83cb8
Fawcett, Dominic
5a151559-b8d9-4c50-8468-8badc1c1c09f
Brown, Luke A.
0b355a45-e6ba-464f-a8ca-a9ea218617d1
Yu, Le
c2092251-0d70-475a-8839-c69b03c7214c
Gadedjisso-tossou, Agossou
d1e99ec9-b10c-40b3-a3c4-ad891dcb83ed
Dash, Jadunandan
51468afb-3d56-4d3a-aace-736b63e9fac8
Li, Chengxiu, Kambombe, Oscar, Chimimba, Ellasy Gulule, Fawcett, Dominic, Brown, Luke A., Yu, Le, Gadedjisso-tossou, Agossou and Dash, Jadunandan
(2023)
Limited environmental and yield benefits of intercropping practices in smallholder fields: evidence from multi-source data.
Field Crops Research, 299 (8), [108974].
(doi:10.1016/j.fcr.2023.108974).
Abstract
Context: To ensure food security in sub-Saharan Africa, it is necessary to improve crop yields while minimizing environmental impacts. Intercropping has been demonstrated to deliver such outcomes, but their performance in smallholder fields has received limited attention therefore insufficient to capture the complexity of real-world crop fields run by smallholder farmers. Objective: This study examines the benefits and management of intercropping practices in real smallholder fields in Malawi. Methods: We collected field data on intercrop types, the number of intercropped species and maize yield in intercropped maize fields. Field data was then combined with geospatial and household survey data to investigate the yield benefits, agricultural inputs, and factors related to intercropping choices. We used Pearson correlation and Tukey's test to test the statistical significance in the difference between intercropped fields and monoculture fields. Results: We found that more intercrops were planted in fields with smaller sizes, drier conditions, and higher soil erosion levels, with adoption rates increasing from 75 % in 2010 to 84 % in 2020. In addition, our field data shows that intercropping is associated with reduced primary maize yield (2.7 t/ha) compared to pure maize yield (3.8 t/ha). Conversely, satellite data demonstrates an improvement in overall field yield in intercropped fields. Meanwhile, intercropped fields require higher labor inputs (11 h more per season) and increased weeding times than monocultures, however agrochemical inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) do not necessarily decrease in intercropped fields compared to monocultures. Conclusions: Our results suggest that while smallholder farmers in Malawi adopt intercropping to improve land use efficiency, drought resilience, and soil fertility, they are not realizing the full benefits observed in experimental trials. Implications: More evidence on the benefits and best practices of intercropping in smallholder fields is necessary in order to better understand this practice as an option for sustainable intensification.
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Accepted/In Press date: 15 May 2023
Published date: 1 August 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This work was funded through the ‘ Building REsearch Capacity for sustainable water and food security In drylands of sub-saharan Africa ’ (BRECcIA) which is supported by UK Research and Innovation as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund, grant number NE/P021093/1 and through Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program ( 20223080017 ; 2021Z11GHX002 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023
Keywords:
Agrochemical inputs, Drought index, Labor inputs, Monocultures, Satellite data, Sub-Saharan Africa, Yield
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 480455
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/480455
ISSN: 0378-4290
PURE UUID: e2ffbeba-2932-4a5e-a86b-cde0384d0fdc
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Date deposited: 02 Aug 2023 16:54
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:58
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Contributors
Author:
Oscar Kambombe
Author:
Ellasy Gulule Chimimba
Author:
Dominic Fawcett
Author:
Luke A. Brown
Author:
Le Yu
Author:
Agossou Gadedjisso-tossou
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