Productivity Optimization in Rice-Based Intercropping Systems of Central Uganda

Abstract

Upland rice production in Central Uganda is mainly done by small scale farmers for both food security and income generation. However, they are faced with a number of challenges including drudgery, birds that eat the crop, erratic weather and limited land holdings. Due to the inadequate land available to them, upland rice has to compete with other food crops for land for cultivation. Thus, apart from the conventional mono-crop, alternative cropping systems that enable them to grow rice while simultaneously benefiting from other major food crops are quite desirable to them. This study was conducted to identify suitable upland rice-based intercropping alternatives to enable upland rice farmers to benefit from intercropping. Three experiments were conducted for two consecutive seasons on rice-beans, rice-groundnuts and rice-maize intercrops, each as a randomized complete block design with 5 treatments and 3 replicates. Treatments for the rice-beans experiment included sole rice, sole beans, intercrop 1(rice:beans in ratio 3:2), intercrop 2 (rice:beans in ratio 4:2) and intercrop 3 (rice:beans in ratio 4:3). The same was done for experiments on the other two intercrops. Data were collected on plant height, tiller number, grain yield of rice and yield of the three intercrops at harvest. Results indicated that intercropping rice with the three crops leads to more yield benefits as observed from the land equivalent ratios (LERs) obtained (average 1.5).The best intercrop with better yields and higher LERs was intercrop 3 for the rice-legume mixtures and rice-based intercrop 1 for the rice-maize mixture.