Evaluation of Common Bean and Potato Densities Effects on Potato Tuber Yield in Mono-Cropping and Intercropping Systems

One of the suitable methods for the movement in regard to sustainable agriculture andenvironmental conservation is intercropping. On this basis, an experiment was conducted in Station Research of Agricultural Faculty of Tabriz University in 2008. Intercropping pattern was additive series method. The factorial set of treatments was arranged within Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The first factor comprised common bean densities of 15, 20 and 25 plants/m2 and the second factor consisted of potato densities of 5, 7.5 and 10 plants/m2 with the same densities of sole cropping of two species. Results showed that the traits of tuber number tuber dry weight and tuber yield per unit area were significantly affected by potato and common bean densities. The highest tuber number was observed at the lowest densities of potato and common bean, but it was higher in 5 plants/m2 potato than that 15 plants/m2 common bean. The highest and the lowest tuber dry weight in per plant were achieved at 10 plants/m2 and 7.5 plants/m2 of potato and at 15 plants/m2 and 25 plants/m2 of common bean. The maximum tuber yield (T/ha) was produced at 10 plants/m2 of potato. Tuber yield was decreased as common bean density increased. Evaluation the advantage of intercropping using Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) showed that the highest LER was observed at 5:15 (1.643) potato – common bean densities. The treatment combination of 5:25 potato – common bean had the maximum RVT (Relative Value Total) (1.734). Therefore, in accordance with the high importance of yield economical value for farmers, it was concluded that the treatment combination of 5:25 potato–common bean was more suitable than those other treatment combinations.