Productivity, land-use efficiency and competition in bread wheat-sweet lupine intercropping system under additive series in Northwest Ethiopia

Food production on continuously declining agricultural land to feed the ever-increasing population is a severe issue in Ethiopia. The present study was therefore initiated to evaluate inter and intra-row spacing on yield per-formance, land-use efficiency and competition in bread wheat-sweet lupine additive series intercropping system. Field experiments were conducted for 2 years in Adet and Debre Tabor experimental sites. The treatments consist-ed of three inter-rows spacing and 3 intra-rows spacing of sweet lupine. Moreover, the sole crop of wheat and lupine were also included as controls. The experiments were laid out in a factorial randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that the combination of 20 cm inter-row spacing with 10 cm intra-row spacing of sweet lupine in bread wheat-sweet lupine intercropping system gave the highest total yield of 4.36 t ha-1 and 4.75 t ha-1 at Adet and Debre Tabor respectively; the land equivalent ratio of 1.43 and 1.57 at Adet and Debre Tabor respectively. Sys-tem productivity index of 4.96 and 5.88 at Adet and Debre Tabor respective-ly. Gross monetary value of 2511.26 and 2752.19 USD ha-1at Adet and Debre Tabor experimental sites respectively. Gross monetary value was generally higher for intercrops than sole cropping systems in both locations; it is linked to intercropping yield and economic benefits compared to sole crop-ping. Farmers in the study area and areas with similar agroecology are rec-ommended to intercrop sweet lupine with bread wheat at 20 cm inter-row spacing with 10 cm intra-row spacing of sweet lupine.