Intercropping faba bean with some crops and its impact on the production, phyllosphere and rhizosphere microorganisms under modern irrigation systems

Abstract EN

Two field experiments were carried out at Arab El-Awammer Research Station, Assiut Governorate, Agricultural Research Centre, during 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons.

The present study assessed the effect of intercropping faba bean with some crops on the production, phyllosphere and rhizosphere microorganisms under modern irrigation systems.

Two separates experiments were done and each experiment was subjected to one of studied irrigation systems (sprinkler and drip irrigations).

Each experiment contained seven treatments of cropping systems (sole faba bean, sole onion, sole garlic, sole fennel, faba bean + onion, faba bean + garlic and faba bean + fennel).

Results showed that plant height, number of branches/plant, number of pods/plant, seed yield/plant, weight of 100 seed and seed yield/fed of faba bean was decreased when intercropped with onion, garlic and fennel compared with sole faba bean in the both seasons.

Drip irrigation produced the maximum yield and its attributes of faba bean as compared with sprinkler irrigation in the both seasons.

Sole onion and garlic gave the highest values of yield/fed under drip irrigation as compared with intercrop with faba bean and sprinkler irrigation in the both seasons.

However, fennel intercrop with faba bean produced the highest value of yield/fed under sprinkler irrigation as compared with sole fennel and drip irrigation in the both seasons.

The highest value of land equivalent ratio (LER) 1.92 was observed when fennel intercrop with faba bean under sprinkler irrigation in the second season.

Competitive ratio (CR) values of onion, garlic and fennel intercrop with faba bean were greater than of sole faba bean in the both seasons.

The highest value of monetary advantage index (MAI) 6519.96 was observed when intercropping faba bean with garlic under drip irrigation in the second season.

Rhizosphere and phyllosphere microorganisms were highly affected by the intercropping and various irrigation systems.

Total counts of both bacteria and fungi in plants phyllosphere were high under sprinkle irrigation than under drip irrigation system while, in drip irrigation was highest in rhizosphere.

Sole cropping contained higher microbial number than cropping system.

Higher values of the biodiversity index indicate large variation in fungal communities of different plants especially in intercropping