Abstract

Pyrethrum is a, herbaceous perennial crop grown commercially for extraction of pyrethrins, which is used in pesticides formulation. Through out the years, it has been grown in a pure stand due to its poor performance as intercrop with other crops that do well in pyrethrum growing areas. A trial was carried out on introduction of a short pigeon pea variety at different line spacing within the pyrethrum crop in randomized complete block design replicated four times. Data on dry pea yields was analyzed using ANOVA and fitted in a generalized linear model, with the distribution assumed to be Gamma and a link function as inverse. The results showed that there was a significant difference (F_{(4, 132)} = 4.76; p=0.001) among the intercropping levels of pyrethrum and pigeon pea. The control (pure stand of pigeon pea had the lowest yield (0.92 t ha^-1) as compared to 1:1 intercropping of pyrethrum and pigeon pea which had the highest pigeon pea yield (1.12 t ha^-1). Comparison of pigeon mean yield showed that there were significant differences (p<0.05) between control and 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 intercropping. However, there were no significant differences (F_{(1, 132)} = 2.68; p=0.104) between control and 4:1 intercropping of pyrethrum and pigeon pea. Overall no significant differences (p>0.05) in pigeon pea yields were found among all intercropping spacing. These findings indicated that pigeon pea might be a good option to inter crop with pyrethrum. Further monitoring and assessment would be carried out to assess both pyrethrum and pigeon pea yield at different seasons of the year.  It was observed that means of the rows were significantly different with pigeon pea pure stand giving the lowest. This observation indicated that pigeon pea is a good option to inter crop with. In all spacings the pigeon pea performed well. If interest would be the quantity of pigeon pea then 1:1 spacing would be resulted to

Key words: Field productivity, soil microbial symbiotic association, soil nutrient availability.