Crop diversification represents a promising pathway towards sustainable farming system. In order to address the severe constraints imposed on agricultural and livestock development due to the scarcity of high-quality forage in the Yangtze River Basin, we employed the principles of crop diversification to enhance crop diversity and intensification at both spatial and temporal scales through intercropping and crop rotation. We developed five diversified double cropping systems: rapeseed-maize, barley-maize, hairy vetch-maize, rapeseed/hairy vetch intercropping-maize, and barley/hairy vetch intercropping-maize. Using a long-term experiment established in 2017, we investigated the intercropping effects of winter crops on biomass production, their legacy effect on soil quality, root and canopy traits, weed occurrence, forage and protein yield of subsequent maize, as well as the economic benefits, covering the period from 2019 to 2021. We found that intercropping, compared to sole cropping, significantly increased winter forage yield by 9.7–136.3%. Furthermore, it significantly improved soil fertility and enhanced soil structure and the activity of nutrient cycling-related enzymes. Such legacy effects further promoted root biomass, activity, and morpho-physiological traits of subsequent maize, facilitating canopy development and leaf photosynthesis, reducing weed occurrence, and increasing summer forage yield by 24.9–27.1%, albeit slightly lower than the yield of maize following hairy vetch. Remarkably, the rapeseed/hairy vetch intercropping-maize system showed the highest annual biomass (39.9 Mg ha) and crude protein (5.18 Mg ha) yield, leading to a net profit value increase of 67.1–80.7%. In conclusion, diversification through intercropping and rotation enhanced the crop-soil interactions and positive feedbacks, ultimately improving system productivity and economic benefits, proving to be an innovative and sustainable approach for promoting forage production in the Yangtze River Basin and beyond.

中文翻译：

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发展多种牧草种植制度，协同提高长江流域产量、经济效益和土壤质量

作物多样化是实现可持续农业系统的一条有希望的途径。为解决长江流域优质牧草稀缺对农牧业发展的严重制约，我们运用作物多样化原则，通过间作和间作等方式，在时空尺度上增强作物多样性和集约化程度。轮作。开发了油菜-玉米、大麦-玉米、毛苕-玉米、油菜/毛苕间作-玉米、大麦/毛苕间作-玉米五种多元化双季制度。通过 2017 年建立的长期实验，我们研究了冬季作物间作对生物量生产的影响、其对土壤质量、根系和冠层性状、杂草发生、后续玉米的饲料和蛋白质产量的遗留影响，以及经济收益。效益，涵盖2019年至2021年。我们发现，与单作相比，间作可显着提高冬季饲料产量9.7-136.3%。此外，它还显着提高了土壤肥力，增强了土壤结构和养分循环相关酶的活性。这种遗留效应进一步促进了后续玉米的根部生物量、活性和形态生理特征，促进冠层发育和叶片光合作用，减少杂草发生，使夏季饲料产量增加24.9-27.1%，尽管略低于后续玉米的产量。毛茸茸的野豌豆。值得注意的是，油菜/毛豌豆间作-玉米系统显示出最高的年生物量（39.9 毫克公顷）和粗蛋白产量（5.18 毫克公顷），导致净利润增加67.1-80.7%。总之，通过间作和轮作实现多样化增强了作物与土壤的相互作用和正反馈，最终提高了系统生产力和经济效益，被证明是促进长江流域及其他地区饲料生产的创新和可持续方法。