role of soil fertility management on productivity of sesame and cowpea under different cropping systems

abstract- declining land productivity associated with decreasing soil organic carbon and nutrients is a significant issue in monoculture production. the field experiment with different rates of fertilizer systems (60 kg ha-1 n + 100 kg ha-1 p, 300 kg ha-1 bio-organic (organic fertilizer), 3 kg ha-1 bioumik (biofertilizer), 30 kg ha-1  n + 50 kg ha-1 p + 150 kg ha-1 bio-organic fertilizer and 30 kg ha-1 n + 50 kg ha-1 p + 1.5 kg ha-1 bioumik) as main effects and five cropping systems (sole sesame, sole cowpea, 50:50 sesame-cowpea intercropping, 75:25 sesame-cowpea intercropping and 25:75 sesame-cowpea intercropping) as subplot effects were carried out to study the influence of fertilizer systems application on productivity in intercrops and monocultures. intercropping of 50:50 sesame-cowpea compared to monoculture plots was highly productive in terms of land equivalent ratio (1.03), area time equivalent ratio (1.04) and land use efficiency (155%). across fertilizer systems, the greater values of land equivalent ratio (1.24), area time equivalent ratio (1.25) and land use efficiency (186%) were obtained from 30 kg ha-1 n + 50 kg ha-1 p + 150 kg ha-1 bio-organic. the results indicate that fertilizer application rate of 30 kg ha-1 n + 50 kg ha-1 p + 150 kg ha-1 bio-organic and intercropping of 50:50 sesame-cowpea could be an effective pathway in raising of productivity toward sustainable agriculture through maximum exploitation of the biological potential for efficient acquisition of p, n and other resources.