FODDER YIELD OF COWPEA INTERCROPPED WITH WATERMELON UNDER BORDER IRRIGATION SYSTEM

Abstract

Cowpea/watermelon intercropping system can diversify farm income by providing multiple products for sale. The pattern reduces animal feed shortage during dry season and boost economic returns of farmers, making it a sustainable and profitable practice. Thus, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the forage yield of cowpea intercropped with watermelon under border irrigation system. The experimental plots were laid out in a randomized completely block design. The sowing arrangement/treatments consist of sole cowpea, cowpea intercropped with watermelon in intra rows
(IR) and cowpea intercropped with watermelon in alternate rows (AR). Plant height, number of leaves and branches per plant, fresh forage yield and dry forage yield were recorded. Results indicated that, there was significant (P<0.05) difference in number of leaves (NL) and number of branches (NB) across all the treatments at 7 weeks after sowing. However, intercropping cowpea together with watermelon under alternate row spacing method recorded higher (P<0.05) NL (64.30) and NB (31.80) compared to sole cropping and intra row spacing method. Sowing cowpea with watermelon at
alternate row spacing recorded higher (P<0.05) dry forage yield (0.35t/ha), followed by sole cropping (0.26t/ha) and then intra row spacing recording the least yield (0.21t/ha). It was concluded that cowpea can be intercropped successfully with watermelon under the alternate row spacing method for better forage yield in Sudan Savannah of Nigeria.