Intercropping improves crop productivity in dryland farms, but little information is available on its application to irrigated land. Therefore, a three-year field trial was conducted to compare two maize-soybean strip-intercropping planting patterns (two-rows of maize intercropped with two-rows of soybean [2M2S] or -three rows of soybean [2M3S]) were studied with sole maize (SM) and sole soybean (SS) systems. Our results showed that wider-strips of soybean grown as 2M3S had significantly higher leaf area index (LAI; 19%), total dry matter accumulation (TDM; 15%), and grain yield (21%) than the narrower 2M2S strips; this is likely related to the reduced effects of maize shading on soybean. Slightly decreased LAI (4%), TDM (8%), and grain yield (5%) of maize were found in 2M3S. On average, intercropped maize and soybean produced 80% and 52% in 2M2S and 76% and 63% in 2M3S compared to SM and SS yields, respectively, demonstrating the dominance of maize over soybean when intercropped. Similarly, maize was a stronger competitor for water than soybean, with partial water equivalent ratio of 0.81 in 2M2S and 0.78 in 2M3S, while that of soybean was 0.54 in 2M2S and 0.66 in 2M3S. In the intercropping systems, the land equivalent ratio ranged from 1.31 to 1.45, and the water equivalent ratio ranged from 1.32 to 1.49, exhibiting that maize-soybean strip-intercropping is a productive strategy to maximize water use efficiency. The results suggest that the maize-soybean strip-intercropping system may be a productive and sustainable strategy to improve the water use efficiency and land productivity under irrigated conditions. This strategy could benefit agriculture with cleaner, and more efficient production under a global scenario of constrained land and water resources. However, more studies are needed to evaluate the feasibility of intercropping systems in various growing conditions.

间作提高了旱地农场的农作物生产力，但关于将其应用于灌溉土地的信息很少。因此，进行了一项为期三年的田间试验，以比较两种玉米-大豆间作种植模式（两行玉米与两行大豆[2M2S]或三行大豆[2M3S]的间作）。唯一玉米（SM）和唯一大豆（SS）系统。我们的结果表明，与较窄的2M2S条相比，作为2M3S种植的宽条带的叶面积指数（LAI; 19％），总干物质积累（TDM; 15％）和谷物产量（21％）显着更高。这可能与减少玉米遮光对大豆的影响有关。在2M3S中发现玉米的LAI（4％），TDM（8％）和谷物产量（5％）略有下降。一般，间作玉米和大豆在2M2S中的产量分别为SM和SS的80％和52％，2M3S中分别为76％和63％，这证明了间作时玉米在大豆上的优势高于大豆。同样，玉米在水竞争方面比大豆强，在2M2S中部分水当量比为0.81，在2M3S中为0.78，而大豆在2M2S中为0.54，在2M3S中为0.66。在间作系统中，土地当量比在1.31至1.45之间，水当量比在1.32至1.49之间，这表明玉米-大豆地带间作是一种最大化水利用效率的生产策略。结果表明，玉米-大豆地带间作系统可能是提高灌溉条件下的水分利用效率和土地生产力的生产性和可持续性策略。在全球土地和水资源有限的情况下，该战略可以通过更清洁，更高效的生产使农业受益。然而，需要更多的研究来评估套种系统在各种生长条件下的可行性。