Water-Yield Response of a Maize and Bean Intercrop

Abstract

For many years models for water balance accounting have been used in irrigation (Pereira, 1957; Wallis, 1963; Blore, 1966; Stewart et al., 1974), hydrologic investigation (Pereira and Hosegood, 1962) and in general descriptive climatology (Woodhead, 1970). Their use for assessing crop or pasture performance has not been fully exploited although such models do have broad Agro climatological utility. This has been demonstrated in regional case studies aimed at evaluating crop yield drought response (Stewart and Wangati, 1980; Steward and Hash, 1982). Determining length of growing season (Dowker, 1971) assessing climatic suitability for various crops (Dagg. 1965) and defining intermittent growth behaviour in arid zones (Fitzpatrick et al., 1967; Nix and Fitzpatrick, 1969; Salter and Good, 1967).