Abstract:

Abstract：Dongting Lake Plain is one of China's high-yielding cotton area, with the extention of hybrid high-yielding varieties, cotton planting density significantly reduced, which provided opportunity for the crop intercropping conditions. In this paper, crop ecological niche differences principle was used to discus the feasibility of cotton-peanut intercropping system. Three different peanut varieties i.e. Xianghua 120 (high lush degree, mid-early maturity, large-seed), Silihong (medium lush degree, very early maturity, medium-seed), Xiangnongxiaohuasheng (low lush degree, early-maturity, small-seed) were selected to intercrop with the main hybrid cotton variety Xiangzamian 2 in Yangtze River Basin.The results showed that: 1) relative illumination, growth potential, seed-cotton yield (3.4%~5.7%) of intercropping cotton all decreased, whereas relative illumination of intercropping peanut raised, the pod yield reduced mainly due to the reduction of planting density. 2）The impact of different peanut varieties to intercropping cotton majorly related to lush degrees, of which Xianghua 120 ＞Silihong＞Xiangnongxiaohuasheng, and the impact by cotton to different peanut varieties mainly related to maturity, of which Xianghua 120＞Xiangnongxiaohuasheng＞Silihong. 3）Although the seed-cotton yield of intercropping cotton slightly decreased, the overall field benefits increased significantly, including 35.9%~107.6% increase compared with peanut monoculture, 31.6%~52.9% increase compared with cotton monoculture. Therefore, the cotton-peanut intercropping system, not only is economically viable, but also there is bright future. Xianghua 120 intercropped with cotton had the top overall field benefit.