Mix-cropping of rice and water mimosa (Neptunia oleracea Lour.) increases rice photosynthetic efficiency, yield, grain quality and soil available nutrients

Zewen Hei, Huimin Xiang, Jiaen Zhang*, Kaiming Liang, Jiawen Zhong, Meijuan Li, Xiaoqiao Ren

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cereal cultivation with legumes plays an important role in improving biodiversity and productivity. However, there are limited references concerning rice/legume mix-cropping in paddy fields. An aquatic leguminous plant, water mimosa (Neptunia oleracea Lour.), was introduced and a related field experiment of two seasons (early and late seasons in 2019) was carried out to explore the effects of rice/water mimosa mix-cropping on rice growth, yield, grain quality and soil nutrients in the present study. Three treatments – rice monocropping, rice/water mimosa intercropping and mix-cropping – were employed in this study. RESULTS: Results showed that rice grew better with greater height, tiller number, chlorophyll content, actual photosynthetic efficiency [Y(II)], maximum photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm) and photochemical quenching coefficient (qP) in the intercropping and mix-cropping treatments. In addition, the intercropping and mix-cropping treatments increased nutrient uptake of nitrogen (N) by11.89–24.42%, phosphorous (P) by 17.75–36.61% and potassium (K) by 19.22–47.44%, and rice yield by 19.9% and 21.8%. Conversely, the non-photochemical quenching coefficient (NPQ), chalkiness degree and chalky rate of rice were lower in the intercropping and mix-cropping treatments relative to those in the monocropping treatments. Notably, soil alkali-hydrolysable N (AN), available P (AP) and K (AK) contents were the highest in the mix-cropping treatments among the three cropping systems. CONCLUSION: We suggest that rice/water mimosa mix-cropping is an environmentally friendly agroecological system with a higher output and can be extended for green rice production and largely applied in the paddy field.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3972-3982
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
Volume102
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Aug 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • intercropping
  • mix-cropping
  • rice
  • soil nutrients
  • yield

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