Table 1 Yield and total biomass water use efficiency (WUE) of maize and grass pea in response to three P treatments (P0–P2) and two water treatments (drought stress (DS) and well-watered (WW)) under three cropping patterns (no barrier, nylon barrier and solid barrier) in maize-grass pea intercropping system

P0 (DS)

No barrier

0.105e

2.242e

0.145e

0.426f

Nylon barrier

0.092f

2.038f

0.148de

0.436ef

Solid barrier

0.086f

1.930f

0.156d

0.450e

P1 (DS)

No barrier

0.377c

3.191a

0.174c

0.495d

Nylon barrier

0.369c

3.131a

0.179c

0.508 cd

Solid barrier

0.356d

2.953b

0.183bc

0.525bc

P2 (DS)

No barrier

0.467ab

2.739c

0.193ab

0.536b

Nylon barrier

0.474a

2.678c

0.193ab

0.534b

Solid barrier

0.460b

2.521d

0.200a

0.557a

P0 (WW)

No barrier

0.160f

2.035f

0.201d

0.548d

Nylon barrier

0.154f

1.989f

0.213d

0.603c

Solid barrier

0.149f

1.895f

0.220d

0.614c

P1 (WW)

No barrier

1.040d

3.655bc

0.315c

0.807b

Nylon barrier

0.968e

3.474de

0.329c

0.838b

Solid barrier

0.940e

3.398e

0.330c

0.841b

P2 (WW)

No barrier

1.344a

3.943a

0.382b

0.956a

Nylon barrier

1.258b

3.746b

0.396ab

0.966a

Solid barrier

1.165c

3.569 cd

0.416a

0.988a

Anova

W

***

***

***

***

P

***

***

***

***

C

***

***

***

***

W*P

***

***

***

***

W*B

***

ns

ns

ns

P*B

**

ns

ns

ns

W*P*B

***

ns

ns

ns