Effect of Intercropping with Mungbean on Growth, Yield and Seed Protein Content of White and Purple Waxy Corn

This study aimed to determine the effect of intercropping with mungbeans on growth, yield, and protein content of waxy corn. The experiment was conducted on rainfed land in Rembitan village (Central Lombok, Indonesia) during the rainy season from December 2023 to March 2024, which was arranged using a Split Plot Design with three blocks and two treatment factors: intercropping (T0= no intercropping, T1= intercropping with mungbeans) as the main plots, and waxy corn varieties (J1= white, J2= purple waxy corn) as subplots. Observation variables included growth, yield components and seed protein content, and data were analyzed with analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's HSD using CoStat for Windows. The results showed that based on the main effect, intercropping significantly increased green leaf number at 28, 42 and 56 DAP (days after planting), weight of dry cobs per plant and protein content of the seeds. Both varieties of waxy corn were also significantly different in terms of green leaf number at 28, 42 and 56 DAP, cob length, weight of dry cob per plant and protein content of the seeds, which were on average higher in purple than in white waxy corn. However, there was an interaction effect of the treatment factors on green leaf number at 42 and 56 DAP, cob length, cob diameter, number of seed rows, weight of 100 seeds and weight of dry cob per plant, in which the effects of intercropping with mungbean were more significant on white than on the purple waxy corn. So it can be concluded that white waxy corn is more responsive than purple waxy corn to intercropping with mungbeans.