Intercropping 'boosts maize yields by 50 per cent'

The results of a 12 year study in Zambia and Malawi have found that growing leguminous trees on maize farms can boost and stabilise maize yields.

This study is informing the AIFSC’s Trees for Food Security project which is providing scientific advice to inform the national tree planting programs in Ethiopia and Rwanda. The project will also scale out to Burundi and Uganda.

“We found that maize farms with legume trees had, on average, a 50 per cent increase in yields and that the yields were stable, compared with those grown with or without fertilisers,” said Gudeta Sileshi, lead study author and the World Agroforestry Centre’s regional coordinator for Southern Africa, based in Malawi. Read more about new study.