The efficiency of durum wheat and winter pea intercropping to increase wheat grain protein content depends on nitrogen availability and wheat cultivar

Abstract

Grain protein concentration (GPC) of durum wheat is often a major concern particularly in low input systems where nitrogen acquisition is low due to limited resource of soil mineral N. By consequence, intercropping (IC) which can improve the use of light, nutrients and water resources (Willey, 1979) could be an alternative to the use of mineral fertilizer (Hauggaard-Nielsen, 2003 and Corre-Hellou, 2006). In this paper, we assessed the hypothesis that the performances of durum wheat and winter pea grown in intercrop (IC) to valorise natural resources are better than in sole crops (SC) in low-input systems. Besides, they would however depend on both nitrogen availability and wheat cultivar.