Evaluation of Light Consumption Efficiency in a Mixture of Maize and Beans Cultivation under the Influence of Biologic and Organic Fertilizers

In order to investigate the effect(s) of biologic and organic fertilizers on light consumption efficiency in growing maize-bean mixture, an experiment has been conducted in the form of split plots in a randomized complete block design with 12 treatments. Main plots, containing different fertilizer systems in four levels, include 30 kg/ha urea, Azotobacter, vermicompost, and Azotobacter + vermicompost, and the subplots contain cultivation compound of pure maize and pure bean being 50% maize + 50% bean, 60% maize + 60% pinto bean, and 80% maize + 80% pinto bean. Results show that leaf area index, dry matter accumulation, and light consumption efficiency of maize have been significantly higher than pure culture. The highest light use efficiency is related to the combined use of Azotobacter and vermicompost in mixed culture of 80% maize + 80% pinto beans with an average of 2.29 g / MJ, which increase light use efficiency by 63%, compared to 30 kg/ha of pure culture. Also, the highest dry matter, related to the mixed culture of 60% maize + 60% pinto beans, belongs to the amount of 1728 g/m2, which increase the dry matter accumulation by 16%, compared to pure culture. In general, the combined composition of organic and biologic fertilizers in intercropping has the ability to compete with urea chemical fertilizer in terms of mechanistic indicators of plant growth analysis.