Cereal-legume intercropping to stabilise yields in tropical regions: evaluation of the STICS soil-crop model

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Résumé

The ability of cereal-legume intercropping to increase and stabilise yields in tropical climates has not been
tested over a wide range of environments. We evaluated the STICS crop model and simulated a 20-year
historical climate series for sole crops and cereal-legume intercropping on sites with contrasting climates
in tropical regions. During the evaluation, the model simulated yields accurately except in the case of very
low-yielding legumes in intercropping. The simulations then suggested that intercropping increased
protein productivity and yield stability compared with cereal sole cropping, although these benefits
diminished as nitrogen fertilisation increased. Recently published work on improvements to the model will
enable these promising results to be consolidated.

Mots-clés

intercropping, legumes, modelling, resilience, intensification