Global demand for food has always been on the increase due to the increase of the population in this world. Intercropping is one of the alternatives of agronomic practices that is widely practiced in ensuring food security and enhancing yield stability. Strip, mixed, and relay intercropping can be practiced to increase crop production. In addition to achieving a successful intercropping system, factors such as suitable crops, time of sowing, maturity of the crop, and plant density need to be considered before and during planting. Besides, practiced intercropping becomes a useful cropping system to increase efficient resource utilization, enhance biodiversity, promote soil health, enhance soil fertility, erosion control, yield advantage, weed, pest, and disease control, insurance against crop failure, ecosystem and modification of microclimate, market instability, and increase farmers income. Crop productivity in any types of cropping system implemented relies primarily on the interception of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) of crop canopy and conversion of intercepted radiation into biomass or known as radiation use efficiency (RUE). Both PAR and RUE are important measurements that have significant roles in crop growth and development in which the accessibility of these radiation dynamics is connected with the leaf area index and crop canopy characteristics in maximizing yield as well as total productivity of the crop component in intercropping systems.

Agricultural waste is a type of solid waste that needs to be managed properly. Organic waste can be recycled to produce bokashi fertilizer, which can be used to improve soil health, increase crop production, and sanitize the environment. However, it may contain heavy metals that could be toxic to plants and can pollute the environment if not properly decomposed. This study was designed to evaluate the fertilizer quality of six different bokashi fertilizer ratios (bfrs) over seven- and thirty-day maturation periods. The raw materials used include horse bedding waste (HBW), cow dung (CD), and paddy husk charcoal (PHC) in different ratios, treated with an effective microorganisms (EM₄) solution. All the nutrients studied (N, P, K, Mg, and Ca) were significantly affected by the bokashi fertilizer ratios (bfrs). The best bokashi fertilizer ratio was bokashi fertilizer ratio-6 (bfr6), but it was statistically similar to bokashi fertilizer ratio-5 (bfr5). Its N, P, K, Mg, and Ca contents were higher than the control (bfr1) by 133.9%, 225.5%, 196.4%, 105.0%, and 84.7%, respectively. Similarly, all these nutrients were significantly affected by time. N, P, K, and Mg increased by 21.2, 33.0%, 16.4%, and 28.8%, respectively, after 30 days of maturation, with a decrease in Ca only 2.4%, which was not significant A germination index (GI) of 90.1% was obtained using cabbage seeds. The heavy metals result and germination bioassay confirmed the safety and maturity of the bokashi fertilizer. In conclusion, the results revealed that good-quality bokashi fertilizer can be produced within 30 days. Bfrr5 and bfr6 are equally good candidates for producing good-quality bokashi fertilizer for effective crop growth.

Intercropping is an inexpensive method of enhancing agricultural productivity, especially when land resources are scarce and food demand is on the rise. This study focuses on the intercropping of sweet corn and groundnut, assessing its biological, competitive, and economic performance using the Land Equivalent Ratio (LER), Aggressivity Index (AI), and Monetary Advantage Index (MAI). The work was conducted in the context of three cropping regimes: sweet corn monoculture (T1), groundnut monoculture (T2), and combined treatments (T3, T4, T5) planted in strips with different planting dates (relay intercropping); same day planting (T3), two weeks after groundnut planting (T4), and two weeks after sweet corn planting (T5). Findings revealed that sweet corn monoculture (T1) always recorded higher performance compared to other systems, in terms of earning more profits since corn was marketed based on the number of ears rather than by weight, as was the case for groundnut. The T4 system involving two-week advance sowing of groundnut before sowing corn recorded higher values of LER, suggesting improved yield and efficiency. However, the values of ATER were below 1, suggesting no time benefit over monocropping systems. Positive values of CR, RCC, and AYL confirmed the dominance of corn in intercropping systems. The highest MAI was for T4 with greater yield and profitability, but T1 was better than intercropping systems. Additionally, the number of sweet corn plants grown was higher in the monoculture system compared to the intercropping systems. Sweet corn monoculture (T1) is advised for greater profitability by smallholders.