Abstract
Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) is one of the newly introduced crops in South Africa. It had been known in some African countries like, Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique as a cash crop. Pigeon peas had been grown successfully under dryland conditions as a monocrop with low production inputs. Pigeon pea is a legume crop, its roots nodules enrich the soil by adding about 40kgN/ha back to the soil. Pods are used for human consumption and as a fodder for feeding animals. The pods contain about 19-28% protein. A dryland pigeon pea based intercrop trial was established during 2008/2009 at Agricultural Research Council Experimental farm to assess the compatibility and intercropping advantages of non-inoculated pigeon pea and maize. Trial design was randomized complete block design (RCBD) in factorial consisting of two pigeon pea cultivar (ICEAP 00360 and ICPL 87091), two open pollinated maize Variety (Zim 423 and Zim 523), and three intercropping intervals (Simultaneously planted intercrop; maize planted 20 DAP and 30 DAP of pigeon pea) and included are two monocropping of Maize and pigeon pea, replicated four times. Variables measured were maize and pigeon pea grain yield, pod yield and land equivalent ratio (LER) was computed. Data were analyzed using Genstat 3.5 while means were separated using least significant different (LSD) at P? 0.05. Grain yield of maize cultivars was significantly different between intercropping interval and maize cultivars. Maize grain yields were high when maize was planted simultaneous with pigeon peas, this accounted for 6719 kg ha-1 grain yield. Maize grain yields were lowered when planted 20 days after pigeon peas but better than when planted 30 days after pigeon peas. ZIM 523 had good grain yields across intercropping intervals dates as compared to ZIM 423. Pod yield varied between intercropping interval and pigeon pea cultivars, thus pod yield was high in the 20DAP intercropping, followed by the 30 DAP intercropping. Cultivar(s) x intercropping intervals interaction were significant at P?0.05 across variables. Pod yields were lower at simultaneously planted intercrops compared to when intercropped at 20DAP and 30DAP. Cultivar ICEAP 00360 yielded best in intercropping compared to ICPL 87091. Pigeon grain yield differed significantly between intercropping interval and cultivars. Higher yields were observed when pigeon pea was intercropped at 20 DAP. LER revealed intercrop advantage with ratios ranging from 1.19 to 2.53 except for when pigeon pea was intercropped at 30DAP, where LER was lower than 1 across maize cultivar.