International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research ISSN 2351-8014 Vol. 18 No. 2 Oct. 2015, pp. 297-303 © 2015 Innovative Space of Scientific Research Journals http://www.ijisr.issr-journals.org/ Corresponding Author: Clérisse M. Casinga 297 The impact of leguminous culture system and sowing dates on the cereal yield in mountainous South-Kivu: Case of Burhale Clérisse M. Casinga 1 , Legrand T. Cirimwami 2 , Espoir B. Bisimwa 1 , and Gustave N. Mushagalusa 1 1 Faculté des sciences agronomiques et environnement, Université Evangélique en Afrique, Bukavu, South Kivu, DR Congo 2 Faculté de Sciences, Université du Cinquantenaire, Lwiro, South Kivu, DR Congo Copyright © 2015 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT: Despite their potential yield, the adoption of climbing beans in mountainous South Kivu is limited by the lack of technologies. Thus, appropriate technologies corresponding to poor farmer incomes should be adapted in terms of labour, soil and investment in capital so that intercropping would replace stakes and allow a better soil cover. This study was carried out at Burhale during two cultural seasons A2011 and A2012 in four sites comprising 9 trials each. The varieties used were: maize, soya-bean and beans. NPK and manure were also used. The MOJA was applied in 1 st and 3 rd trials and the MBILI in 2 nd and 4 th ones. Monoculture was practiced in 6 th , 7 th , 8 th and 9 th trials. Beans were sown 10 to 15 days after maize in 1 st and 3 rd trials. In 2 nd , 4 th and 7 th trials this happened 20 to 30 days after maize. Soya-beans were sown simultaneously with maize in the 5 th MBILI trial and in the 8 th monoculture trial. Maize was sown on the experiment launching day. Leguminous plant yield was inferior (259.26; 271.88; 0 and 0 kg.ha -1 respectively for 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th trials) to that of monoculture (2711.11 and 1100.18kg.ha -1 respectively for 6th and 7 th trials). Maize yield was inferior (7564.4; 5397; 10279.61 and 842.91kg.ha -1 respectively for 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th trials) to that of the 9 th monoculture trial (7957.4kg.ha -1 ). Good LERs of 1.01 and 1.25 were found for 1 st and 3 rd ; they were bad (0.76; 0.92 and 0.69) for 2 nd , 4 th and 5 th trials. KEYWORDS: Land Equivalent Ratio, MOJA system, MBILI system, maize, climbing beans, Soya-beans. 1 INTRODUCTION Agricultural development is facing several constraints such as limitation of soil, water and inputs coupled with continuous growth population and the lack of a structured market, resulting in reduced production per capita. In addition, the farmers are frequently following easy and old practices such as the relay sowing of crops, exhausting more land area, water and inputs [10]. Furthermore, this practice is commonly used for the principal crops which occupied most of the available old land area while other crops, of secondary importance, are restricted to small areas [6]. An alternative procedure to mitigate the effect of these constraints and to increase the acreage and production of such secondary crops is to intercrop them particularly in the newly reclaimed soils [22]. Intercropping is practiced in many parts of the world [4]. It is traditionally a low input agricultural system and an important characteristic of many developing countries [2]. As one of the multiple cropping systems, intercropping has been practiced by farmers for many years in various ways and most areas, and has played a very important role in agriculture [5]. It can provide yield advantages compared to sole cropping [2]. Most studies on intercropping have focused on the legume-cereal intercropping like a productive and sustainable system, its resource utilization (water, light, space) into the cropping system and reduction of negative impacts on the environment [5], [29]. In recent years attention has focused on the diversified agricultural production systems for maximizing utilization of resources as compared to the monoculture cropping systems [18]. Combinations of a cereal with a grain legume are probably the commonest of all intercropping systems, and at least in Africa and Asia, the farmer's yield objectives tend to follow a similar theme [25]. Several research works indicated the particular importance of plant density and planting pattern upon