Banana leaf pruning to facilitate annual legume intercropping as an intensification strategy in the East African highlands

• Published in: European journal of agronomy 2019-10, Vol.110, p.125923, Article 125923
• Main Authors: Ocimati, W., Ntamwira, J., Groot, J.C.J., Taulya, G., Tittonell, P., Dhed’a, B., van Asten, P., Vanlauwe, B., Ruhigwa, B., Blomme, G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Banana; Intercrop; Leaf pruning; Legume; LER; Revenue
• ISSN: 1161-0301; 1873-7331
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eja.2019.125923

•Increasing banana leaf pruning levels progressively reduced banana performance while increasing legume yields.•Legume intercrops with high biomass (e.g. climbing beans) reduced banana performance.•Land-use efficiency was reduced by severe banana leaf pruning (i.e. retaining 4 leaves) but improved by moderate pruning.•The un-pruned banana monocrops had the highest labor and overall economic efficiency.•The decision to prune or not, to integrate legumes was thus trade-off between agronomic and economic efficiency. Banana leaf pruning is a common practice to facilitate intercropping with legumes on farmers’ fields. It is however not clear if this practice improves farmers land-use and economic efficiency, especially after full canopy formation. To analyze pruning effects, three legumes viz. bush bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L), climbing bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L) and soybean (Glycine max), were planted under three banana leaf pruning levels in which four, seven and all fully grown leaves were retained. Sole banana or legume plots served as controls. Each treatment combination was replicated three times. Banana growth and yield attributes were measured for the plant and first ratoon crops while legume biomass and yields determined over five consecutive cropping seasons. Significant (P