Yield and Yield Advantage of the Component Crops as Affected by Strip Intercropping of Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) with Pineapple (Ananas comosus L.)

Abstract

Intercropping has a number of advantages over mono-cropping production system, which has significant problems and that there are sufficient justification for studying intercropping approaches. Consequently, researchers have proposed a systematic intercropping approach to evaluate the benefits of strip intercropping in terms of yield advantage, economic return, yield stability, pest control, nutrient use efficiency, etc. However, because of these advantages, intercropping is practiced in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. A field experiment was conducted at Awada Agriculture Research Sub-center during 2012 and 2019 to evaluate the effect of strip intercropping ratios of coffee with pineapple on the yield and yield components of both crops and to determine economically optimum coffee to pineapple strip intercropping ratio for the study area. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Coffee variety (Fayate) and Smooth Cayenne Pineapple variety were used. The experiment was comprised five treatments: sole coffee, sole Pineapple, 1C:1, 1:2, and 1:3 ratio of coffee with pineapple. The pooled mean analysis revealed that the sole planted coffee and pineapple were produced statically highest yields in contrast with other intercropped treatments. Regarding strip intercropping treatments, the highest and lowest clean coffee yield were recorded at 1C:1P (1289 kg ha-1) and 1C:2P (1128 kg ha-1) treatments. The highest total land equivalent ratio was recorded at 1C:3P (1.50), closely followed by 4C:1P (1.36), 1C:1P (1.32), and 1C:2P (1.23) or a relative yield advantage of 23 to 50% was obtained from the coffee-Pineapple strip intercropping treatments. Therefore, this finding recommend that strip intercropping of coffee with pineapple at 1C:3P ratio is a viable option for sustainable productivity in yield and yield profit to farmers as revealed by the highest total LER.