CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 16Agronomic Practices and Intercropping SystemsAgricultural Innovations and PracticesAgricultural Productivity and Crop Improvement

Marginal more than mesic sites benefit from groundnut diversification of maize: Increased yield, protein, stability, and profits

Open access
John, Innocensia, Snapp, Sieglinde, Nord, Alison, Chimonyo, Vimbayi, Gwenambira, Chiwimbo, Chikowo, Regis·2021·Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
DOI 10.1016/j.agee.2021.107585
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Sustainable Intensification (SI) interventions are urgently required, particularly those suited to resource poor farms in Africa. Legume crops have been promoted as a key ingredient for SI of rainfed grain production on smallholder farms, with variable results. There is a need to explore the extent to which legume diversification of maize production impacts stability, nutrition, and income. This is particularly so for marginal environments. On-farm experimentation was conducted in Central Malawi over two to seven years on 29 farm sites (120 year-site combinations). The farms were located within four areas that included lakeshore, dissected hills (two locations) and upland plain. Maize diversification included a long-duration legume pigeonpea and a medium duration legume groundnut, grown in rotation or intercropped with maize, and as a doubled-up legume rotation (DLR). To quantify the performance of systems under low, medium, and high yield environments, we used long-term average maize yield to categorize each farm site. All legume diversified systems supported stable grain production in the low yield environment, as shown by 37–41% coefficient of variation for yield, in comparison to 62% for sole maize. The groundnut systems consistently produced the highest grain yield, protein, stable yields, and economic returns, and this performance held up in marginal, low yield environments. In this multi-site, multi-year, on-farm replicated study, the performance of groundnut systems (GnRot and DLR) stood out for high protein (0.529 T ha−1 2 yr−1 and 0.615 T ha −1 2 yr−1, respectively over two years) versus unfertilized maize (0.169 T ha−1 2 yr−1). These two groundnut-based systems were produced with half-fertilizer rates compared to sole maize and were economically high performers. However, there was a barrier to adoption of GnRot and DLR in that improved groundnut seed was expensive (USD 157 ha−1 2 yr−1), this initial investment being beyond the means of many farmers, despite the cost largely offset by the generation of high income (USD 1636–1993 ha−1 2 yr−1). Long-term sustainability was assessed by monitoring soil organic carbon (SOC), which was found to be markedly influenced by soil texture (sites with SOC >1.5% had sand content <50%). Legume diversification effects on SOC were not discerned, possibly due to high sand content on the oldest trial sites. This study highlights the value of longitudinal data and including a wide range of soil texture sites in on-farm experimentation to identify overall legume diversification effects within maize systems.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.agee.2021.107585

Cites

88 of 88 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In Malawi, a diversified rotation with groundnut and pigeon pea in a maize-based system reported lower total input costs and total costs than continuous maize monocropping.

    “In Malawi, a diversified rotation with groundnut and pigeon pea in a maize-based system reported lower total input costs and total costs than continuous maize monocropping (John et al. 2021).”

    From The socio-economic performance of agroecology. A review (2024) · cites this paper as John et al. 2021

    Table 5 reports lower two-year input and total costs for the groundnut–pigeonpea rotation (DLR) than for fully fertilized continuous maize (MzNP). But both costs are higher than for unfertilized continuous maize (Mz0), so the claim needs to specify the fertilized comparator. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 89 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Franke, A.C., Van Den Brand, G.J., Vanlauwe, B., Giller, K.E., 2017. Sustainable intensification through rotations with grain legumes in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.09.029. · DOI
  2. Gubatov, T., Tsenov, N., Yanchev, I., 2017. Correlation between the ranking of winter wheat genotypes by grain yield and stability through various statistical approaches. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci. 23 (1), 92-101.
  3. Malawi Ministry of Agriculture, 2012. Malawi Guide to Agriculture 2012 Edition. Malawi Ministry of Agriculture, Lilongwe, Malawi.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
John, I., Snapp, S., Nord, A., Chimonyo, V., Gwenambira, C., & Chikowo, R.
Affiliations
  • University of Dar es Salaam (TZ)
  • Michigan State University (US)
Corresponding author
John, Innocensia
ORCID
Venue
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-10
Volume
320
Pages
107585
ISSN
0167-8809 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.agee.2021.107585
OpenAlex
W3191020239
Cited by
16
References
89
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1
FWCI
3.14
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • Michigan State University (AID-OAA-A-13-00006)
  • United States Agency for International Development (AID-OAA-A-13-00006)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Agronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agricultural Innovations and Practices
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Agricultural Productivity and Crop Improvement
Keywords
groundnut, Cajanus cajan, maize intercropping, sustainable intensification, marginal environments, yield stability, protein yield, soil organic carbon, soil texture, fertilizer use, smallholder farming, technology adoption, Central Malawi, economic returns, on-farm trials

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review