Sustainable intensification through optimization of maize-pigeonpea/lablab cropping systems in Northern Tanzania

Many smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa practice intercropping. To enable sustainable agricultural intensification, there is need for the intercrops to be optimized so as to enhance efficient use of available resources, which can be aided by spatio-temporal niche differentiation and facilitation of companion crops. In Northern Tanzania, smallholder farmers frequently intercrop maize with legumes such as pigeonpea or lablab. There is however insufficient understanding of the performance of these intercrops on-farm in contrasting agro-ecological zones (AEZs) and how they are influenced by socio-economic and biophysical factors of a farm household. There is also inadequate information on how the systems can be optimized to achieve multiple benefits from legumes both in the short term (e.g. legume grain yields) and in the long term (e.g. soil fertility) at minimal grain loss of the main crop (in this case maize). Management options for optimization that will be investigated in on-farm trials include choice of legume species, different crop varieties and nutrient status. The study therefore seeks to analyse the performance of pigeonpea\ lablab – maize intercrops and will combine farm surveys and on-farm trials with crop growth models on smallholder farming systems in contrasting AEZs of Northern Tanzania. The outcomes will inform intensification in Tanzania along sustainable trajectories for positive social, economic and environmental impacts.