Table 4.

Performance of biomass of intercropped pea and maize relative to corresponding sole crops with two N treatments (N0, 0 kg N ha⁻¹; and N1, 225 kg N ha⁻¹ for pea and 450 kg N ha⁻¹ for maize) and three maize densities (D1, 73,600 plants ha⁻¹; D2, 85,900 plants ha⁻¹; and D3, 98,200 plants ha⁻¹ for sole maize; the relative density of intercropped maize (according to the proportion of occupied area in intercropping) was 45,000, 52,500, and 60,000 plants ha⁻¹ for D1, D2, and D3, respectively)^d.

Nitrogen rates	Maize density	Sole cropping		Intercropping			LERabiomass
		Pea	Maize	Pea	Maize	Total
		kg ha−1
N0	D1	8798	16970	4130	10854	14984	1.11 ± 0.04b
	D2	—	19236	3990	14109	18099	1.13 ± 0.02
	D3	—	20183	3588	15457	19045	1.18 ± 0.02
N1	D1	10069	21061	4860	14707	19568	1.18 ± 0.01
	D2	—	23991	4738	17153	21891	1.19 ± 0.01
	D3	—	23652	4067	19435	23503	1.23 ± 0.02
LSD(0.05)		849	1147	376	1370	1056
		P > F
Year (Y)		NSc	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS
Nitrogen rate (N)		0.001	0.003	0.001	0.013	0.002	NS
Maize density (D)		—	0.027	0.002	0.014	0.029	0.049
N × D		—	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS

^aLER, land equivalent ratio. ^bValues following ± are standard errors. ^cNS, not significant at the 0.05 probability level. ^dValues are means (n = 3).