Optimizing Wheat-Pea Intercropping for Sustainable Forage Production: Productivity, Land-Use Efficiency, and Economic Evaluation
AGRICULTURE-BASEL, cilt.16, sa.19, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 16 Sayı: 19
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.3390/agriculture16192157
- Dergi Adı: AGRICULTURE-BASEL
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, CAB Abstracts, Geobase, Directory of Open Access Journals, Natural Science Collection (ProQuest)
- Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Mixture ratio and growth stage are important management factors influencing forage productivity and quality in wheat-pea intercropping. Therefore, a two-year field experiment was conducted to evaluate five wheat-pea mixture ratios and three pea flowering stages under rainfed Mediterranean conditions. Five seeding ratios (100W, 75W+25P, 50W+50P, 25W+75P, and 100P; W = wheat, P = pea) and three growth stages (early flowering, 50% flowering, and full flowering) were evaluated. Plant height, forage and dry matter yields, crude protein, land equivalent ratio (LER), and economic performance were evaluated. Year-specific responses were observed for most yield traits. In 2024-25, the highest total forage yield (49.5 t ha-1) was obtained from 50W+50P at 50% flowering, whereas the highest total dry matter yield (15.9 t ha-1) and total LER (1.63) were recorded for the same mixture at full flowering. Across the two years, crude protein declined with maturity, ranging from 12.9% to 4.0%. Based on the two-year average economic analysis, 50W+50P harvested at full flowering produced the highest net income (US$ 391.36 da-1) and benefit-cost ratio (5.31). Findings highlight the joint management of mixture ratio and growth stage for sustainable forage production.