Land and Water Productivity in Intercropped Systems of Walnut—Buckwheat and Walnut–Barley: A Case Study

Intercropping arable crops in orchards is a sustainable land use for intensifying agricultural production, under the condition of plants’ complementarity sharing resources. This study investigated aspects water and yields intercropped systems walnut crops. To assess possible temporal between trees, summer crop—buckwheat—and winter crop—barley—were orchards. The productivity were studied two designs: an older, denser orchard younger one, with wider tree spacing. results showed reduction (WP) intercrops due to competition exception buckwheat orchard, where this crop surprisingly achieved highest yield WP. Nevertheless, system mature fruiting intercropping barley was 53% more productive per unit 83% water-productive than growing separately but also 48% land-productive 70% walnut–buckwheat system. Our indicate positive effects trees on microclimates emphasize importance species selection design overall systems.