The Effects of Cropping Patterns and Insecticide Application on the Growth and Yield of Cowpea in a Cowpea/ Maize Intercrop

The Effects of cropping patterns and insecticide application rates on the growth and yieldof cowpea in a cowpea/maize intercrops was carried out at the Teaching & Research farmof the faculty of Agriculture, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. The experiment was a3x4 factorial design fitted into a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), thetreatment used were cropping patterns and 3 rates of insecticide application. Thetreatment were four (4) cropping pattern namely, Sole cowpea, Sole maize,Cowpea/Maize 1:1 (C1M1), Cowpea/Maize (2:2) C2M2 and spray rate of 0,500mls/ha,750mls/ha of cyperforce. The results obtained indicate that cropping patternsignificantly affected the Plant height, Number of leaves, stem girth, pre-harvest datataken with the 750mls/ha of cyperforce recording the best form of pest control of cowpeainsects closely followed by the 500mls/ha of cyperforce. Of the cropping pattern used,the C2M2 (cowpea/maize 2:2) cropping pattern gave the best result. The combine effect ofcropping pattern insecticide application gave the highest cowpea grain yield with theC2M2 combined with C2M2 x750mls/ha recording the best cowpea grain yield while theC1M1 (cowpea/maize 1:1) treatment recorded the least yield, The yield was 1184kg/hagiving the best yield while the least yield was 1084.70kg/ha. of the LER (land equivalentratio) value, the intercropped mixture were generally above 1.0 indicating better LER(land equivalent ratio) and thus, better land resources use than the sole crops counterparts