An on-farm verification of the performances of maize, and haricot beans under different cropping types was conducted for two consecutive years (1995/1996 to 1996/1997) in Bako area at twenty sites, out of which ten sites from the first year (season) were taken for analysis. The experimental design used for this study was Randomized Complete Block using farmers' field as replications. The treatments were sole haricot bean without fertilizer, sole haricot bean with fertilizer, sole maize fertilized and maize/haricot bean intercropped where haricot beans were intra-row planted within the maize row. The data were analyzed using T-statistics, Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) and partial budgeting using value-cost ratio (VCR). T-Test showed no significant difference in mean grain yield of maize between, intercropping and monocropping. Fertilization significantly increased bean grain yield over unfertilized check (p<O.Ol) probably signaling the poor nitrogen fixing ability of haricot beans. Bean yields from intercropping were not compared to other treatments because of very low yields recorded under intercropping conditions. Though not statistica11y significant, the mean grain yield of maize was higher by 2.89 % under intercropping. The effect of haricot beans on maize was positive; however, the vice versa was not true. Consequently, farmers can be encouraged to pursue this cropping system as maize is the main component of the intercrop. LER result showed that more yield benefit and higher overall system productivity could be obtained from intercropping (LER of 117 %). Finally, economic evaluation found out that the most profitable cropping option is unfertilized sole haricot bean (VCR= 3.24) followed by maize/haricot bean intercropping (VCR=1.93).

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0103|AL-Maize Program|AGRIS 0102|AJ

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