Abstract

Abubakar Umar, Ibrahim Aliko and Ahmed Tijani

A trial was conducted in the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) research farm in Kano, Nigeria during the 2002/2003 cropping season to evaluate the effect of intrarow and interrow mixing of sorghum with two varieties of cowpea on host crop yield in a Striga hermonthica infested field. Significantly (P 0.05) highest number of Striga per sorghum plant were obtained with sorghum only, which also have the lowest yield (2370 kg/ha). A significantly (P 0.05) higher yield (3709 kg/ha) was obtained with intra-row mixture of sorghum and densely planted cowpea variety, IT96D -452-1. This treatment also had the least number of Striga per net plot and per plant, which may be attributed to the effectiveness of the cowpea trap crop in stimulating the suicidal germination of the Striga seeds which would have otherwise attacked and reduced the productivity of the host plant. It may also be attributed to the effectiveness of the cropping method, with a ratio of sorghum : cowpea plants of 1:13, which improves the productivity of the system and at the same time suppresses the germination of Striga seeds.