Bean intercropping systems with small castor hybrids

Sistemas de consorciação de feijão com híbrido de mamona de pequeno porte

Abstract

Research aimed at investigating the ideal plant arrangement system of common beans under intercropping with castor hybrids is necessary, as intercropping is a common practice in Brazil, and this practice affects the morphophysiological behavior of both crops. The objective of this study was to evaluate the consociation systems of common bean plants with small-sized castor hybrid, in three agricultural years, in the edaphoclimatic conditions of the Cerrado of Goiás, Brazil. In the three experiments, the randomized block design with four repetitions was used, involving the combination of five simultaneous sowing systems: beans sown on the castor row, on the inter-row, on the row + inter-row and beans and castor in monocropping. The bean cultivar used was Pérola; for castor the Agima hybrid was used. The plant height, primary yield components and the yield of the beans were evaluated, while for castor was evaluated the plant height, stem diameter, number of racemes per plant, plus the yield, in addition to the area equivalence index (AEI) to verify the efficiency of the intercropping. The arrangement of bean plants cv. Pérola on row and row + inter-row of the Agima 110204 castor hybrid provides higher yields of the legume. The yield of castor hybrids is not influenced by the common bean crop. The growing of common bean and the castor hybrid in the intercropping system is more efficient than the monocropping of both crops.

Keywords:
crop associated; plant arrangement; Phaseolus vulgaris; Ricinus communis; yield

Resumo

Pesquisas que visem investigar o sistema de arranjo ideal de plantas do feijão em consórcio com híbridos de mamona são necessárias, pois o consórcio é uma prática comum no Brasil e esta prática afeta o comportamento morfofisiológico de ambas as culturas. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar os sistemas de consorciação de feijoeiro comum com híbrido de mamona de pequeno porte, em três anos agrícolas, nas condições edafoclimáticas do Cerrado goiano, Brasil. Nos três experimentos foi utilizado o delineamento em blocos casualizados com quatro repetições, envolvendo a combinação de cinco sistemas de semeadura simultânea: feijão semeado na linha de mamona, na entrelinha, na linha + entrelinha, feijão e mamona em monocultivo. A cultivar de feijão utilizada foi Pérola; para mamona foi utilizado o híbrido Agima. Foram avaliados a altura das plantas, os componentes primários do rendimento e o rendimento de grãos do feijão, enquanto na mamona foram avaliados a altura das plantas, o diâmetro do caule, o número de racemos por planta, mais o rendimento de grãos, além do índice de equivalência de área (IEA) para verificar a eficiência do consórcio. O arranjo das plantas de feijão cv. Pérola em linha e linha + entrelinha do híbrido de mamona Agima 110204 proporciona maiores rendimentos da leguminosa em questão. A produtividade dos híbridos de mamona não é influenciada pela cultura do feijoeiro. O cultivo do feijoeiro comum e do híbrido de mamona em sistema consorciado é mais eficiente que o monocultivo de ambas as culturas.

Palavras-chave:
associação de culturas; arranjo vegetal; Phaseolus vulgaris; Ricinus communis; rendimento

1. Introduction

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) presents a short cycle and with habit of not very aggressive growth, these being desirable characteristics for the intercropping with crops such as castor (Sousa et al., 2017). Both crops have different nutritional needs and cycles, with beans being a staple food of Brazilians, while castor is valued for the multiple uses of its oil in the chemical industry for an extensive list of products, including biodiesel production (Mesquita et al., 2012; Araújo et al., 2016; Lisboa et al., 2018), and because of this is historically more expensive than major vegetable oils (Severino et al., 2015).

Brazil leads the global production of common beans, with 3.3 million tons harvested in the 2023/24 season from 2.93 million hectares, with an average productivity of 1,031 kg ha^-1. Regarding castor crop (Ricinus communis L.), 30.6 billion tons were produced in the same season, primarily in Bahia (90%), with a relatively low productivity of around 649 kg ha^-1, similar to the national average of 658 kg ha^-1 over the past five years. The cultivation of castor has expanded to other regions of Brazil, notably the Midwest, where changes in yield levels have been observed, particularly in Mato Grosso state, achieving a productivity of 958 kg ha^-1 in the 2018/19 season, surpassing the national average. Sá et al. (2015) suggest that the region has the potential for castor productivity exceeding 1,500 kg ha^-1.

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is well-suited for diverse agricultural systems, from highly mechanized to low-input, such as smallholder family farms. Success in bean cultivation hinges largely on climatic conditions, with rainfall and temperature playing pivotal roles. High temperatures hinder bean flowering and fruit set, while low temperatures can cause flower abortion. Additionally, high temperatures alongside low humidity and strong winds can significantly reduce pod retention (Andrade et al., 2017).

Intercropping is in common use in Brazil, especially in small rural properties (Sousa et al., 2017), also adopted on a large scale currently in medium and large properties that adopt the crop-livestock integration (ILP) and crop-livestock-forest integration (ILPF) systems. The effective advantage of this technique about the monocropping system becomes more evident when the crops involved present differences between their requirements regarding the available resources, either in quantity and/or quality (Teixeira et al., 2012).

The intercropping between oil and food crops is a possible alternative to meet energy demand, without harming food production. When selecting the crops that will make up the system, the choice of the best intercropping system and the definition of the plant population must be considered as the most important aspects for the intercropped system to reach the desired technological levels, guaranteeing good yields (Viegas Neto et al., 2012; Oliveira Filho et al., 2016).

The cultivation of common beans and castor with the most diverse crops in intercropping systems, such as beans + castor (Lisboa et al., 2018), castor + corn (Oliveira Filho et al., 2016), beans + coffee (Carvalho et al., 2010a), among others, results in increasing the yield of both crops, maximizing the consumption of resources and increasing the productivity of the cultivation system.

To ensure the success of intercropping systems, several considerations must be taken into account before planting, including spacing, planting density, and row configuration (Pinto and Pinto, 2012). Many farmers still use inadequate planting arrangements and populations due to lack of research, resulting in inefficient land use and decreased profitability of intercropping (Oliveira Filho et al., 2013). Additionally, in the limited studies on castor cultivation within intercropping systems in the Midwest region, medium to large genetic materials have been utilized, with varying maturation rates and manual harvesting, typically suited for cultivation in the Northeast region (Bizinoto et al., 2010; Teixeira et al., 2012; Cardoso et al., 2013; Cunha et al., 2014; Santos et al., 2017), employing genetic materials such as BRS Paraguaçu and Guarany.

Therefore, it is necessary to conduct research aimed at investigating the ideal plant intercropping system of common beans with castor hybrid, because the morphophysiological behavior of both crops is changed under intercropping, in order to provide the producer with more information on the use of the technique.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the intercropping system of common bean plant consociation with small-sized castor hybrid, in three agricultural years, in the edaphoclimatic conditions of the Cerrado of Goiás, Brazil.

2. Material and Methods

2.1. General information

The experiments were conducted in the rainy crop season of agricultural years 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, which comprises the months of November to April and winter 2019, which comprises the months of June to September, in the state of Goiás. The geographical coordinates of the area are: 17º43 'south latitude and 48º09' west longitude, with a mean altitude of 820m. The regional climate is classified as Aw, with precipitation and mean annual temperature of 1,750 mm and 25 °C, respectively. The climatic data of the periods in which the experiments were conducted are presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1
Monthly climatic data relating to precipitation (mm), maximum temperature (°C) and minimum temperature (°C) during the period of conduction of the rainy crop season of 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 and winter crop season of 2019 in Ipameri-GO (INMET, 2019).

Samples were taken from soil classified as dystrophic Red Yellow Latosol (EMBRAPA, 2006), in the 0-20 cm layer, and sent to the laboratory for physical-chemical analysis, which presented the following results in the areas in which the crop seasons were conducted.

In the rainy seasons of 2017/2018, 2019/19 and the winter of 2019, soil characteristics were measured as follows: pH (CaCl₂) recorded values of 5.9 and 5.2 respectively, P (mg dm^-3) levels were 6.7 and 11.2, K (cmol_c dm^-3) were 0.28 and 0.48, Ca (cmol_c dm^-3) were 3.5 and 5.0, Mg (cmol_c dm^-3) were 1.7 and 1.2, Al (cmol_c dm^-3) remained constant at 0.0, H + Al (cmol_c dm^-3) increased from 1.9 to 3.4, V(%) decreased from 74.54 to 66.39, B (mg dm^-3) slightly increased from 0.18 to 0.19, Cu (mg dm^-3) decreased from 1.5 to 1.1, Fe (mg dm^-3) decreased from 42.6 to 27.9, Mn (mg dm^-3) increased from 18.8 to 33.8, Zn (mg dm^-3) increased from 7.5 to 9.3. Organic matter (g dm^-3) increased notably from 24.0 to 40.0, while the composition of soil particles showed a decrease in sand content from 670.0 to 570.0 g kg^-1, an increase in silt from 70.0 to 90.0 g kg^-1, and an increase in clay from 260.0 to 340.0 g kg^-1.

2.2. Experimental design and treatments

In the three experiments, the randomized block design with four repetitions was used, involving the combination of five simultaneous intercropping systems: (i) beans sown on castor row; (ii) beans on castor inter-row; (iii) beans on row + inter-row of castor;(iv) beans in monocropping; (v) castor in monocropping.

The bean cultivar used was Pérola, belonging to the carioca group, normal cycle of 85-95 days, indeterminate growth habit type II/III, semi-prostrate architecture, with productive potential of 3,903 kg ha^-1 (EMBRAPA, 2017). The Agima 110204 hybrid was used for the castor, 140-day cycle, 1.7 m height, with a productive potential of 1,500 kg ha^-1 (Sá et al., 2015).

2.3. Plot details, implementation and conduction

The experimental plots for castor bean intercropped with beans consisted of four rows, each 5.0 m long, spaced at 1.0 m intervals. In treatments involving intercropping, a single row of beans was sown in the inter-row spaces of the castor bean plots. The two central rows of each plot, containing both the bean cultivar and the castor hybrid, were considered the useful area for data collection.

For monocropping systems of beans and castor beans, the plots consisted of four rows, each 5.0 m long, spaced at 0.5 m and 1.0 m intervals respectively. The two central rows of each plot, representing the useful area, were harvested for data collection.

The sowing of crops was carried out simultaneously in the three harvests, using manual sowing. 20% more seeds were used when sowing the two crops, and at 20 days after emergence (DAE) thinning was carried out, with the objective of reaching 12 and 2 plants per linear meter of beans and castor bean respectively. At 30 DAE, the cover was fertilized with nitrogen, in a continuous

Rainy crop seasons were conducted without irrigation. In the winter crop season, sprinkler irrigation was used throughout the bean cycle, as required by the crop. The other cultural treatments used were those normally applied to the crop.

2.4. Analysis performed

In the bean harvest, in the useful area of each experimental unit, in the three cultivation crop seasons, ten plants were randomly harvested for the evaluation of the primary yield components (number of pods per plant, number of grains per pod and mean mass of 100 grains), in addition to the plant height with the aid of a measuring tape, measuring the region between the neck and apex of the main stem of the plant. With the plants harvested from the useful area, yield was determined. Both the average mass of 100 grains, in grams (g), an yield, in kg ha^-1, were corrected for 13% humidity (wet basis).

In castor bean, in the useful area of the plots in the three cultivation crop seasons, ten plants were harvested for the evaluation of plant height, stem diameter, number of racemes per plant and yield. The height of the plant was measured using a measuring tape, measuring from the neck to the top of the plant; the diameter of the stem was measured with the aid of a digital caliper with a precision of 0.01 mm, approximately 2 cm from the neck of the plant; the number of racemes was obtained by counting the racemes present in the plant area, the yield was expressed as kg ha^-1 of grains, with the water contents corrected to 10% (wet base).

The area equivalence index (AEI) was calculated according to the methodology used by Vieira (2006), using the following Formula 1:

$AEI=\frac{AC}{AM}+\frac{BC}{BM}$ (1)

Where: AC = crop A yield in intercropping; BC = crop B yield in intercropping; AM = crop A yield in monocropping; BM = crop B yield in monocropping.

The intercropping will be efficient when the AEI is above 1.0 and inefficient for production when below 1.0.

2.5. Statistical analysis

The data set of cultivation crop seasons were individually analyzed and submitted to ANAVA.Then the joint analysis of the data was performed, according to criteria established by Banzatto and Kronka, (2006). The effects of the treatments were broken down by the Tukey Test at 5% probability. The comparison of intercropping with monocropping was made by the t test at 5% probability. The analysis was performed by the SISVAR 5.6 program (Ferreira, 2011). The plotting of the graphs was carried out with the SigmaPlot 10.0 program (SSI, 2006).

3. Results and Discussion

The joint analysis presented significant values for crop season in all variables analyzed under the common bean intercropping system with castor hybrids, while for the plant arrangement system, only the variables number of pods per plant and yield. The interaction of factors cropseason × plant arrangement significantly influenced only the number of pods per plant among the variables evaluated. The other characteristics evaluated were not influenced by the treatments. In intercropping × monocropping, the variables plant height and yield presented significant values.

3.1. Agronomic components of beans

The edaphoclimatic conditions of the rainy 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 crop seasons (Figure 1) were similar with minimum mean temperatures 19 °C and maximum 30 °C, while in the 2019 winter crop season it obtained minimum of 11 °C and maximum 34 °C.

For the variable plant height, it was verified that in the 2019 winter crop season were produced plants of higher size (59.9 cm), followed by the 2017/2018 rainy crop season (55.1 cm) (Figure 2A) justified by the good water availability occurred during the crop cycle, in both of them, guaranteed by the use of irrigation in the winter crop season. On the other hand, in the 2018/2019 rainy crop season, the bean plants presented smaller size (48.7 cm). This is a fact attributed to the occurrence of 15 days without rain (Figure 1), which ended up limiting the growth and development of plants.

Figure 2
(A) Mean plant height values of common bean intercropped with castor hybrid in different crop seasons; (B) Mean plant height values of common bean intercropped with castor hybrid and in monocropping; (C) Mean values of number of grains per pod of common beans intercropped with castor hybrid depending on cultivation crop seasons; (D) Mean mass values of one hundred grains of common beans intercropped with castor hybrid depending on the cultivation crop seasons.

There was significant interaction of the number of pods per plant (Table 1) between crop season × arrangement, the 2017/2018 rainy crop season under the arrangements of bean plants in the castor crop row and inter-row, obtained the highest means, 22.2 and 17.8, respectively, differentiating from the other treatments.

Table 1
Mean values of the number of pods per plant (NPP) of common beans intercropped with castor hybrid as a function of the interaction cultivation crop seasons × intercropping systems.

Cultivation crop seasons	Intercropping systems
	Beans on row	Beans on inter-row	Beans on row + inter-row
Rainy 2017/18	22.2Aa	17.8Aab	14.4Ab
Rainy 2018/19	8.9Bb	16.8Aa	9.3ABb
Winter 2019	11.5Ba	13.4Aa	11.1Ba

• Means followed by the same letter, uppercase in the column and lowercase in the row, do not differ from each other at 5% probability by the Tukey test.

The number of grains per bean pod was significantly influenced by the crop season under intercropping system with the castor hybrid. In the 2017/2018 rainy crop season the highest mean was detected (5.3) (Figure 2C), also occurring in the monocropping (4.4), although there was no statistical difference between the two systems in said crop season. On the other hand, in crop seasons winter 2019 and rainy 2018/2019, pods with fewer grains per pod were produced, which did not differ statistically from each other.

The significance of the crop season factor was observed on the mass of one hundred grains of beans intercropped with castor hybrid (Figure 2D).In the 2017/2018 rainy crop season were produced bean seeds of greater weight (31.7 g) compared to the other crop seasons,. The weight of one hundred grains was also influenced by the factor crop seasons under monocropping and produced seeds with greater weight in the 2017/2018 rainy crop season, compared to the other two cultivation crop seasons.

The variable grain yield of the bean in the intercropped system with castor hybrid was significantly influenced by the factors crop seasons and plant arrangements. The highest yields were obtained in the 2019 winter and 2017/2018 rainy crop seasons (Table 2). On the other hand, in the 2018/2019 rainy crop season, the lowest mean yield was obtained (891 kg ha^-1). These results are largely consistent with the components of the yield and the yield itself evaluated, regarding the fact that the 2017/2018 rainy crop season followed by the 2019 winter crop season have stood out in relation to the 2018/2019 rainy crop season, attributed mainly to the water restriction caused by a strong summer occurred in the filling phase of grain stocks in this last crop season.

Table 2
Mean values of the yield of common beans intercropped with castor hybrid as a function of cultivation crop seasons and intercropping systems.

Cultivation crop seasons		Grain yield (kg ha-1)
Rainy 2017/2018		1,247 ab
Rainy 2018/2019		891 b
Winter 2019		1,351a
Intercropping systems
Bean on castor inter-row		1,420 a
Bean on row + inter-row of castor		1,207 ab
Beans on castor row		861 b

• Means followed by lowercase letters in the column, do not differ from each other at 5% and capital letters at 1% probability by the Tukey test.

The yield was also influenced by the arrangements of bean plants under intercropping with hybrid castor. The arrangement of beans in the castor inter-row resulted in higher yield (1,420 kg ha^-1)but not statistically differentiating from the bean arrangement in the row and inter-row of the castor (1,207 kg ha^-1). On the other hand, the sowing of beans on the castor row provided the lowest level of mean bean yield (862 kg ha^-1) compared to the arrangements mentioned above.

It should be noted that these variations are typical for the southeastern region of Goiás, where the municipality of Ipameri is situated. Bean production in this region typically occurs within a temperature range of 10 to 34 °C, which is considered favorable for cultivation (Barbosa and Gonzaga, 2012). Therefore, it can be inferred that the temperatures recorded during the experiments were within this range.

In an intercropping system, it observed a higher average plant height (54.6 cm) compared to monocropping (52.8 cm). This suggests that common bean plants (cv. Pérola) grown in intercropping with the Agima110204 castor hybrid exhibit greater height than those in monocropping (Figure 2A), likely due to competition for light among plants in the intercropping system (Larcher, 2003). The interaction effect observed in the number of pods per plant (Table 1) can be attributed to the prevailing climatic conditions (Figure 1) during the 2017/2018 rainy season, characterized by well-distributed precipitation and suitable temperatures throughout the different phenological stages of the bean crop, without extreme heat or excessive rainfall that could adversely affect the crop season.

Different conditions occurred in the 2018/2019 rainy crop season, there were records of abundant rainfall between November and December 2018, causing some losses in bean crops, especially in the initial phase of flowering, as well as in the phase of filling grain reserves due to the occurrence of summer in January 2019. As for the 2019 winter crop season, despite the absence of water problems due to the use of irrigation, the occurrence of lower temperatures (Figure 1) in the months of June and July also caused the increase of the crop cycle, corroborating the statement of Andrade et al. (2006), considering that the bean has a prolonged cycle when grown in colder regions in the winter crop season.

The number of pods per plant is one of the agronomic components most affected by the variation of the bean population (Costa & Silva, 2008; Schmildt et al., 2010). Guimarães et al. (2019), when evaluating the agronomic components of the bean cultivar BRS FC104 under different spatial arrangements, found that the number of pods per plant was significantly affected by the 0.50 m inter-row spacing and the plant population, obtaining mean values of 17.6 pods per plant, close, therefore, to the mean values obtained in this study in the 2017/2018 rainy crop season. Here, the caveats made to the characteristics previously evaluated are valid, that in the 2017/2018 rainy crop season there were no stressful conditions that hindered the growth and development of the bean crop, such as water limitation and/or low temperatures during the cycle, contrary to the two other crop seasons analyzed, that is, rainy 2018/2019 and winter 2019.

It is noteworthy that the weight of one hundred grains of beans together with the number of grains per pod has little influence from the external environment, as they are characteristics inherent to cv. Pérola, which has a mean mass weight of one hundred grains around 27.0 g (EMBRAPA, 2017), and 3-4 grains per pods.

When comparing the mean yields of beans obtained in the 2017/2018 rainy and 2019 winter crop seasons (Table 2), whose mean values were 1,247 and 1,351 kg ha^-1, it is found that these stood out or were close in relation to the national mean yield of common beans obtained in the 2017/2018 crop season, whose mean was 1,216 kg ha^-1 (CONAB, 2019). On the contrary, it was noted in the 2018/2019 rainy crop season, the lower yield of beans was verified, therefore it falls short of the national mean yield, reaching reduction values around 50%.

As for the yield in the cultivation systems, this result can be explained by reason of the bean plants when intercropped with castor, suffer yield reduction of up to 50% due to competitiveness within the intercropping system (Teixeira et al., 2012). However, this does not make it possible to assert that the intercropping was inefficient compared to monocropping. Therefore, when choosing crops to be used in an intercropping system, it is necessary to evaluate all the agronomic components of the same, as well as the efficient use of land (UEA) to help in choosing the best arrangement for the intercropping (Oliveira Filho et al., 2016).

Similar results for yield in intercropping systems were also found by Lisboa et al. (2018), which evaluated the agronomic characteristics of bean cultivars BRS Pérola, BRS Pitanga, BRS Esteio, BRSMG Realce intercropped with Agima 110204 and Tamar hybrids, where they obtained mean bean yield of 2,675 kg ha^-1 and 2,212 kg ha^-1 for the monocropping.

Based on the assumptions described above, it can be said that the bean cv. Pérola and castor hybrid Agima 0110204 are viable crops when cultivated under intercropping, because they presented yields compatible with levels obtained nationally in monocropping system.

3.2. Agronomic components of castor

As for the cultivation systems, it was found that under bean monocropping higher yield was obtained (1,346 kg ha^-1), being statistically different from the intercropping with a mean of 1,163 kg ha^-1. From the result of the joint analysis of castor, it can be seen that the variables stem diameter, number of racemes per plant and yield were significantly influenced, in isolation by the crop season factor, as well as the yield that was influenced by the plant arrangements factor. The interaction cultivation crop season × plant arrangement did not influence any castor variable analyzed (Table 3).

Table 3
Summary of the analysis of joint variance (mean squares) for plant height (PH), stem diameter (DIAM), number of racemes per plant (NRP), mass of one hundred grains (MOG) and grain yield (GY) of castor hybrid intercropped with common beans and in monocropping, in three agricultural crop seasons (rainy 2017/18, 2018/19 and winter 2019).

Source of variation	Mean Squares
	DF	PH	DIAM	NRP	GY
Intercropping
Blocks of crop seasons	3	134.7095ns	10.4313ns	2.0674ns	26782.37ns
Crop season (C)	2	619.7408ns	45.2046**	61.9558**	965566.33**
Arrangement (AR)	2	559.0687ns	0.8725ns	1.0525ns	515932.33*
C × AR	4	454.8011ns	7.1976ns	1.6033ns	80550.66ns
Residue	24	407.4539	7.1125	1.37032	113598.37
C.V. (%)	-	20.2	14.9	24.2	23.7
Monocropping
Blocks of crop seasons	3	86.1286ns	5.9127ns	0.7744ns	603289.22ns
Crop seasons (C)	2	31.7898ns	20.3128ns	20.4175ns	524592.00ns
Residue	6	77.4120	4.1667	0.8152	185331.55
C. V. (%)	-	9.0	10.7	18.2	25.9
Intercropping × Monocropping	-	1.9404ns	3.5644ns	0.006ns	45451.1*

• DF = Degrees of Freedom; C.V. = Coefficient of Variation.
• ^**
  significant p<0.01;
• ^*
  significant p<0.05; ^nsnot significant.

The variable stem diameter (Figure 3A) of the castor hybrid under intercropping in common beans presented the highest mean value in the 2019 winter crop season (19.4 mm), followed by the 2018/2019 rainy crop season and the 2017/2018 rainy crop season (18.4 and 15.7 mm, respectively). Regarding the arrangement of plants, these were considered statistically equal in intercropping system, with mean diameter values of castor plants of 18.1, 18.0 and 17.5 mm respectively for the bean arrangements on the row, inter-row and on row + inter-row. The diameter of the castor stem was also not influenced by the monocropping system as well as by the interaction intercropping × monocropping. These results confirm that the bean cv. Pérola under intercropping did not influence the growth/development of the Agima 110204 castor hybrid.

Figure 3
(A) Mean diameter values (mm) of castor hybrid intercropped with common beans as a function of cultivation crop seasons; (B) Mean values of number of racemes per plant of castor hybrid intercropped with common beans depending on cultivation crop seasons; (C) Mean productivity values of castor hybrid for cultivation systems.

The number of racemes per plant of the castor hybrid (Figure 3B) presented a higher mean value of 7.3 in the 2019 winter crop season compared to the 2018/2019 rainy crop seasons, whose mean was 4.3, while in the 2017/2018 rainy crop season this value was 2.8. There was a statistical difference in the yield of castor for cultivation crop seasons and bean plant arrangements in isolation (Table 4). The highest mean yield was obtained in the winter crop season of 2019 (1,729 kg ha^-1) in relation to the rainy crop seasons of 2018/2019 and 2017/2018, with respective values of 1,364 and 1,170 kg ha^-1, which did not differ from each other.

Table 4
Mean yield values of castor hybrid intercropped with common beans in different cultivation crop seasons and bean intercropping systems.

Cultivation crop seasons		Grain yield (kg ha-1)
Rainy 2017/2018		1,170 b
Rainy 2018/2019		1,364 b
Winter 2019		1,729 a
Intercropping systems
Bean on row + inter-row of castor		1,661 a
Bean on castor inter-row		1,307 b
Bean on castor row		1,296 b

• Means followed by lowercase letters in the column, do not differ from each other at 5% and capital letters at 1% probability by the Tukey test.

In the cultivation systems of castor, intercropping and monocropping (Figure 3C), mean yields of 1,421 kg ha^-1 and 1,656 kg ha^-1 were obtained, respectively, both higher than the national mean (631 kg ha^-1) of the crop for the 2017/2018 crop season (CONAB, 2019).

3.3. Area equivalence index

The Area Equivalence Index (AEI), also known as efficient land use (ELU), is used to measure the efficiency of the intercropping compared to the monocropping system. Regarding this index, it can be verified that all bean plant arrangements were considered efficient for the intercropping with castor hybrids (Table 5), since all obtained values were bigger than 1.0.

Table 5
General means of the relationship between productivity of common bean in intercropping and monocropping (I/M BEAN), relationship between productivity of castor hybrid in intercropping and monocropping (I/M Castor) and area equivalence index (AEI), in three agricultural crop seasons (rainy 2017/18, 2018/19 and winter 2019).

Intercropping systems	I/M Bean	I/M Castor	AEI
Bean on castor row	0.68	0.78	1.46
Bean on castor inter-row	1.10	0.61	1.71
Bean on row + inter-row of castor	1.00	1.02	2.02

Soratto et al. (2011), in a study on castor crop spacing, utilized a row spacing of 0,90 m and reported mean stem diameters of 23.1 to 25.8 mm for the large castor stem cv. FCA-PB during the agricultural years 2007/2008 and 2008/2009. These values are comparable to those found in the present study, which employed a 1.0 m row spacing for castor hybrid materials.

High population densities can lead to reduced availability of light energy due to competition among plants, resulting in lower storage capacity of photosynthates in the stem (Carvalho et al., 2010b). This can lead to a decrease in the number of racemes produced per plant and consequently lower yield of castor beans. However, this phenomenon was not observed in either cultivation system, as intercropping and monocropping did not differ statistically in terms of plant diameter or number of racemes per plant. The mean plant diameters were 17.8 mm and 18.9 mm, and the mean number of racemes per plant was 4.8 and 4.9, respectively. This suggests that the presence of beans did not significantly affect stem diameter or the number of racemes per plant in the castor hybrid under intercropping conditions. Under monocropping conditions, the number of racemes per plant was not influenced in the different crop seasons evaluated, as well as in the interaction intercropping × monocropping. The values of the number of racemes per plant obtained are also similar to those obtained by Soratto et al. (2011), which obtained mean of 5.2 racemes per plant in the 2007/2008 crop season and 3.6 in the 2008/2009 crop season with the cultivar FCA-PB.

Under the arrangement of bean plants on row + inter-row of castor hybrid, the highest mean yield was obtained. These results are also satisfactory, as they were above the national mean yield of castor, which in the 2017/2018 crop season was 631 kg ha^-1 (CONAB, 2019). Yields close to those found in this study were obtained in a study by Moro et al. (2011) with castor hybrids Lyra and Sara, whose mean yields were 1,415 kg ha^-1 and 1,342 kg ha^-1, respectively.

For the yield of castor (Table 5), the results obtained partly agree with the yields achieved for the bean crop in an intercropping system as for the cultivation crop seasons, when the highest yields were acquired in the rainy crop seasons of 2017/2018 and winter of 2019 in relation to the rainy crop season of 2018/2019. For castor the highest yields obtained in the 2019 winter crop season compared to the two other crop seasons analyzed may be due to the cycle differences existing between the common beans cv. Pérola and the Agima 110204 castor hybrid, around 30 days, especially in the rainy crop season of 2018/2019 when the strong water deficit occurred, this had less effect to the castor crop in comparison to the bean. In addition, the low temperatures observed in the winter crop season of 2019 certainly harmed less the growth/development of castor beans, causing them to have higher productivity in this crop season (Figure 1).

The yields obtained (1,421 kg ha^-1 and 1,656 kg ha^-1) in the intercropping and monocropping system (Figure 3C) respectively, confirm that the bean cv. Pérola does not interfere in yield of the Agima 110204 castor hybrid under intercropping, as both were higher than the national mean (631 kg ha^-1) of the crop for the 2017/2018 crop season.

3.4. Area equivalence Index

The Area Equivalence Index (Table 5) for all analyzed arrangements obtained values greater than 1.0. Thus, it can be confirmed that the intercropping of common bean cv. Pérola and castor hybrid Agima 110204 is more efficient than the monocropping of both crops in isolation. A similar result was achieved by Teixeira et al. (2012), evaluating the intercropping of common beans with castor cv. Paraguaçu and obtain an index of 1.55 for the arrangement on castor row + inter-row, 1.18 on the row and 1.26 on the inter-row. Albuquerque et al. (2012) obtained similar values in the intercropping of beans with cassava, with AEI ranging from 1.28 to 1.54. Oliveira Filho et al. (2016), evaluating the intercropping of castor beans with cowpea, also obtained results greater than 1.0 considering thus efficient land use the intercropping of these crops.

4. Conclusions

The yield of common bean and hybrid castor, in intercropping or monocropping, in general, is influenced by the cultivation crop season. The intercropping systems of bean plants cv. Pérola on row and row + inter-row of the Agima 110204 castor hybrid provides higher yields of the legume in question. The yield of castor hybrids is not influenced by the common bean crop. The cultivation of common bean and the castor hybrid in an intercropping system is more efficient than the monocropping of both crops.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to CAPES “Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior” for providing the master’s scholarship to the CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico), Brazil, for granting the research productivity grant to the second author. Financial resources from Notice/Call No. 01/2023, Development Term No. 51958670, SEI process No. 202300020011690, as well as resources from the Research, Graduate, and Innovation Promotion Program of the State University of Goiás.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  28 Oct 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  23 May 2024
• Accepted
  15 Aug 2024