Productivity of babycorn in single crop or intercropped with legumes, under organic management

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the yield of babycorn in single crop or intercropped
with legumes, under organic management. The following treatments were used: velvet bean
(Mucuna cinereum) intercropped with maize, sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) intercropped with
maize, jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis) intercropped with maize and single maize. The highest
productivity values of dry biomass were found with sunn hemp and jack bean intercropped with
maize, contributing for a higher biomass supply to the soil. Regarding the babycorn yield, there
were no significant differences between the treatments for total and commercial productivity,
demonstrating that the intercropping between maize and the different legumes is advantageous,
because they keep the soil covered, provide higher amounts of biomass and do not
interfere with the productivity of the corn.