ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agroecology and Ecosystem Services
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1585429
This article is part of the Research TopicComparing Conventional and Low-Input Agricultural Practices: Multicriteria Assessment of Productivity, Environmental and Plant Protection AspectsView all 4 articles
Wide-Narrow Row Configuration and High-Density Planting Enhance Productivity and Economic Benefits in Walnut-Silage Maize Agroforestry Systems in an Arid Region of Southern Xinjiang
Provisionally accepted
- Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, China
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Agroforestry systems that integrate trees with crops can enhance land productivity while promoting ecological sustainability. This study examined how different row spacings and planting densities influence the growth, yield, and economic returns of relay-intercropped silage maize within walnut orchards in southern Xinjiang, China. A two-year field experiment was conducted to test three planting densities: 75,000, 90,000, and 105,000 plants per hectare, along with four planting patterns, which included wide-narrow rows and conventional equal row spacing. The results indicated that higher planting densities increased silage yield but reduced individual plant growth. The wide-narrow row pattern proved to be superior, enhancing early growth traits such as stem diameter and nitrogen content, as well as harvest characteristics, including reduced plant height and larger leaf area. At the high planting density of 105,000 plants per hectare, the wide-narrow row configuration produced the highest silage yield (71.23 t·ha⁻¹), increased economic profit by an average of 3,160 CNY·ha⁻¹, and provided enhanced resilience against market price volatility. Principal component analysis confirmed that the combination of wide-narrow rows and high density optimizes agronomic performance, economic returns, and resource-use efficiency. These results support the adoption of this planting strategy as a sustainable approach to enhancing productivity and economic stability in arid agroforestry systems.
Keywords: agroforestry, Planting system, Replanting silage maize, yield, Economic benefits
Received: 28 Feb 2025; Accepted: 03 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liang, Sun, Zhang, Peng, An, Ge and An. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Shu zhen Zhang, zszxjau@163.com
Yan An, yanan@xjau.edu.cn
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