Intensifying Cropping Systems with Double-Legume Relay Intercropping in Mediterranean Rainfed Drylands: Insights from Morocco

SUMMARY: In Morocco’s semi-arid regions, increasing drought and erratic rainfall threaten cereal production and farmer livelihoods. To improve resilience, ICARDA introduced a relay intercropping system, planting chickpeas between paired lentil rows during flowering. This innovation doubled land use efficiency without reducing lentil yields and additional chickpea yields by 0.8–1.3 t/ha, boosting farm profitability. The system also improves soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, extends soil cover to prevent degradation, and enhances resilience by diversifying crops. Notably, wheat yields following intercropping increased by 8–10%, and protein output improved compared to conventional cereal rotations, offering a climate-smart alternative for vulnerable farming systems.

The increasing frequency of droughts, extreme temperature events, and declining soil health severely threaten crop production in the semi-arid region of Morocco, putting farmers at high risk of complete or partial crop failure each year. Moreover, decreasing rainfall amounts and greater rainfall variability have threatened water-demanding cereal, like wheat production. In the past five years, continuous drought and erratic rainfall have resulted in complete crop failures or significantly below-average yields for many farmers. Lentil (Lens culinaris), a low water-requiring crop, is cultivated by some farmers in the region using a paired-row planting system, where more >1m of space is left between paired rows to facilitate mechanical weeding and manual harvesting. To intensify and diversify this existing system, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) introduced a relay intercropping innovation by sowing chickpeas (Cicer arietinum) between the paired lentil rows during the lentil flowering stage. This “relay planting” approach allows two crops to be grown and harvested from the same land without significant competition for water or nutrients. Lentil yields remained same (0.837 ± 0.19 t/ha in sole cropping vs. 0.808 ± 0.159 t/ha under intercropping), while additional chickpea yields ranged from 0.8 to 1.3 t/ha, enhancing overall farm profitability. Furthermore, this diversification strengthens production system resilience, reducing dependency on a single crop.

Relay intercropping also extends soil cover later into the season, reducing land degradation risks. As both lentils and chickpeas are nitrogen-fixing legumes, soil fertility is improved. Notably, wheat yields following relay-intercropping increased by 8–10%, and overall protein yield significantly improved compared to traditional cereal-cereal rotations.

READ: Diversified Cropping System: Relay Intercropping of Lentils with Chickpeas (Morocco), Mina Devkota and Vinay Nangia. 2022.

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