IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i13p7874-d850433.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intercropping of Cauliflower with Lettuce Is More Effective for Sustainable Fertilizer Management and Minimizing Environmental Risks

Author

Listed:
  • Metin Turan

    (Department of Agricultural Trade and Management, Faculty of Economy and Administrative Sciences, Yeditepe University, Istanbul 34755, Turkey)

  • Seda Erenler

    (Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Atatürk University, Erzurum 25240, Turkey)

  • Melek Ekinci

    (Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Atatürk University, Erzurum 25240, Turkey)

  • Ertan Yildirim

    (Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Atatürk University, Erzurum 25240, Turkey)

  • Sanem Argin

    (Department of Agricultural Trade and Management, Faculty of Economy and Administrative Sciences, Yeditepe University, Istanbul 34755, Turkey)

Abstract

Intercropping systems are one of the sustainable agricultural models as they play an important role in protecting soil fertility, efficient use of resources, maintaining stable yields, and reducing the effectiveness of diseases and pests. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of intercropping (IC) cauliflower ( Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis) with leaf lettuce ( Lactuca sativa L. var. crispa) on the yield and quality parameters of cauliflower and to evaluate the overall productivity of the system under different nitrogen fertilization rates (160, 200, and 240 kg N ha −1 ). Our results showed that the leaf chlorophyll value (SPAD), plant weight, leaf weight, head diameter, head height, head weight, and total yield of cauliflower were found to increase as the nitrogen dose increased in both the monocropping (MC) and IC systems. The most efficient nitrogen fertilizer doses for cauliflower were 234.7 kg ha −1 for MC and 176.6 kg ha −1 for IC, respectively. When the intercropping system was used the total yield (cauliflower and lettuce) was higher than the yield of cauliflower (MC) for the same total area and fertilizer amount. The land equivalent ratio (LER) values were greater than 1 in the intercropping system at all fertilization rates, which indicated that the IC system was more productive than the MC system for the same unit of land. Our findings also showed that intercropping was an effective method to increase fertilizer use efficiency and the soil organic matter, nitrogen content, plant available P, K, Mg, Zn, Fe, Mn, and Cu. In conclusion, while intercropping cauliflower with lettuce did not adversely affect the yield of cauliflower, it enabled harvesting more plants (cauliflower and lettuce) from the same land area by using the same amount of fertilizer, which makes intercropping a sustainable, economical, and ecological model that increases the land-use and fertilizer-use efficiencies.

Suggested Citation

  • Metin Turan & Seda Erenler & Melek Ekinci & Ertan Yildirim & Sanem Argin, 2022. "Intercropping of Cauliflower with Lettuce Is More Effective for Sustainable Fertilizer Management and Minimizing Environmental Risks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-15, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7874-:d:850433
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7874/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7874/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dickson Mgangathweni Mazibuko & Hiroko Gono & Sarvesh Maskey & Hiromu Okazawa & Lameck Fiwa & Hidehiko Kikuno & Tetsu Sato, 2023. "The Sustainable Niche for Vegetable Production within the Contentious Sustainable Agriculture Discourse: Barriers, Opportunities and Future Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Ramazan Çakmakçı & Mehmet Ali Salık & Songül Çakmakçı, 2023. "Assessment and Principles of Environmentally Sustainable Food and Agriculture Systems," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-27, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7874-:d:850433. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.