Effect of alley plants species and plantain cultivars on yield of 60-day cowpea grain in Umudike Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Alley cropping or hedgerow intercropping is one of the many sub-systems of agroforestry technology. A 5 x 3 factorial experiment in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications was used to determine the effect of four alley woody species and three plantain cultivars on the yield of 60-day cowpea grain in the 2017 and 2018 farming seasons. The Alley species, plantain cultivars and Alley species x plantain cultivars treatment interactions showed no significant effects (p<0.05) on cowpea grain yield. Students t-test on the two farming seasons showed significant increase in yield of cowpea grain in 2018 than in 2017. Alley cropping technology could increase 60-day cowpea grain yield due to improved soil fertility in the system.

Keywords: alley cropping, yield, 60-day cowpea, alley woody species, plantain cultivars