Assessing the Impact of Intercropping on Maize and Cowpea Yields in Aynayaskax Village, Garowe District, Puntland, Somalia

The field experiment was carried out during the March 2023 -May 2024 cropping season at Aynayaskax village, Garowe district, Somalia to determine the effect of intercropping of maize and cowpea on the yield, land use efficiency, and profitability of both crops. The experiment consisted of 2 treatments (sole maize, sole cowpea, in two replications where intercrop 1 (spacing of 40 cm between maize and cowpea) and intercrop 2 (spacing of 30 cm between maize and cowpea served as treatments.). The study revealed that while sole cropping of maize resulted in the highest grain yield (4245.4 kg ha-1), intercropping systems also yielded respectable results. Based on the present finding, intercropping of one row of maize and one row of cowpea has more economic advantage than the other crop combination or grown alone. Therefore, intercropping of one-row maize to one row of cowpea is advantageous to farmers in the study area since it would provide additional crop yield with the same piece of land and be more profitable related to cost-benefit. Therefore, intercropping of one-row maize to one-row cowpea is advantageous to farmers in the study area since it would provide additional crop yield with the same piece of land and more profit related to cost benefit.