Comparative Water Uses of Maize-Mungbean Intercrop, Sole Maize and Sole Mungbean

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted on a Reddish Brown Lateritic (or Paleustult) soil to compare water uses of maize-mungbean intercrop. sole maize, and sole mungbean with the same plant spacing and density for each crop. Moisture content of the soil was determined with a neutron moisture meter. The amounts of water lost by evapotranspiration of the three cropping systems were found essentially comparable, though sole maize tended to give the highest values and sole mungbean tended to give the lowest. Circumstances where water lost by evapotranspiration of the intercrop system may be more than that of the sole crops have been discussed.