Field trials were conducted in the wet seasons of 1997 and 1998 at Makurdi, Otukpo and Yandev in the Southern Guinea Savanna ecological zone of Nigeria to study the responses of ten soybean genotypes to intercropping. The experiment was laid out in a randomised complete block design. The genotypes TGX 1807-19F, NCRI-Soy2, Cameroon Late and TGX 1485-1D had the highest grain yield. All the Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) values were higher than unity, indicating that there is great advantage in intercropping maize with soybean. The yield of soybean was positively correlated with the days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, pods/plant and leaf area, indicating that an improvement in any of these traits will be reflected in an increase in seed yield. There was a significant genotype × yield × location interaction for all traits. This suggests that none of these factors acted independently. Similarly, the genotype × location interaction was more important than the genotype × year interaction for seed yield, indicating that the yield response of the ten soybean genotypes varied across locations rather than across years. Therefore, using more testing sites for evaluation may be more important than the number of years.
Vegetative biomass of maize, soybean, lablab and grazing vetch under different tillage and mulch practices in the foothills agro-ecological zone of Lesotho
