Intercropped melon-cowpea organic system can improve melon yield and land equivalent ratio

Resumen

Monocultures are very common in horticulture in many areas of the World with high intensification. This las led to reductions in soil organic matter content and soil fertility, high erosion rates, low above and belowground biodiversity, soil and water pollution (by pesticides and fertilizers), greenhouse gas emissions, high incidence of pests/diseases, low resilience and adaptability and landscape simplification. So, agricultural intensification based on monocultures hinders the long-term sustainability of the current agroecosystems, with the need of adoption of new agricultural models based on crop diversification and low input-management practices. Intercropping is a strategy of crop diversification where two or more crops are grown simultaneously in the same farm. It is important to know the behaviour of the different species grown together to favour facilitations processes among them and avoid competence. In this presentation we show the effect of different combinations of intercropped melon (Cucumis melo) with cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), with decrease of external inputs on crop yields, land equivalent ratio (LER) and crop quality parameters under Mediterranean semiarid conditions. We observed, for two crop cycles, that melon yield has increased in intercropped systems by 50-70%, related to higher melon weight and number of melons, with no decrease in melon quality. Land equivalent ratio, which assesses the suitability of intercropped systems compored to monocultures, showed values of 1.4-1.8, confirming the high profit of the land under this intercropping system.