Abstract

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Intercropping is the growing of two (or more) crops together on the same piece of land and often possess an advantage in terms of more yield and less use of plot of land compared to sole cropping. Some crop varieties may not fix environmental nitrogen hence they need application of more chemical fertilizers. Thus, intercropping may be chosen to alleviate a particular limitation of soil nitrogen resources. In this study, effect of intercropping systems of feba bean and wheat on yield of wheat in Ambo area, West Shoa, Ethiopia have been investigated. Experiments were conducted at Guder and Ginchi. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block designs (RCBD) with three replications. The treatments were sole wheat, sole faba bean, mix and alternate cropping systems. Results of the investigation showed that the highest wheat yield at Guder was 1420.8 Kg ha-1 and Ginchi was 1185.8 Kg ha^-1 was obtained when wheat was intercropped alternatively with faba bean. Similarly, mix intercropped possesses significant wheat yield 1174 Kg ha^-1) and 1013.3 Kg ha^-1 at Guder and Ginchi sites, respectively. But the lowest yield was obtained from sole wheat at Ginchi (790 Kg ha^-1) and Guder (1061 Kg ha^-1) sites. At the two sites, the land equivalent ratio (LER>2) signify the tested cropping system approach is very much useful as it increase the yield on mix and alternate intercropped systems than the sole cropping.

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