Breeding cassava for intercropping with cowpea: monoculture selection captures most intercrop selection gain, but targeted testing remains necessary

Intercropping dominates smallholder cassava production in sub-Saharan Africa, yet cassava breeding programs evaluate genotypes exclusively under monoculture. Despite consistently reported system-level yield advantages, cassava yield is reduced by 17–51% under intercropping, indicating a need to reduce this competitive disadvantage through breeding. However, the quantitative-genetic foundations of intercrop breeding remain uncharacterized for tropical root-crop systems. We hypothesized that monoculture selection would capture most, but not all, genetic merit for intercropping and that a limited tester set would be sufficient if general mixing ability predominated.

We evaluated 120 cassava clones previously selected under monoculture in IITA advanced yield trials, testing them under monoculture and in intercrop with two contrasting cowpea varieties across two years at Ibadan, Nigeria. Spatial mixed models quantified genetic variation, genotype-by-cropping-system interaction, cross-system genetic relationships, realized selection gain, mixing ability, tester effects, and land equivalent ratio.

Intercropping reduced cassava fresh root yield by 19%, but total land equivalent ratios exceeded 1.0 for all clones, confirming a system-level land-use advantage. Cassava performance under intercropping was heritable, with estimates of 0.50–0.75, and genotype-by-cropping-system interaction was not significant. Genetic correlations between monoculture and intercrop performance were high and approached unity (rg = 0.92–0.99), and selection efficiency was 26–44% at 10% intensity, confirming that high genetic correlation does not guarantee effective indirect selection. Monoculture selection captured approximately two-thirds of direct intercrop gain. General mixing ability dominated, specific mixing ability was negligible, and producer effects explained 20–47% of intercrop variance. The two architecturally and phenologically contrasting cowpea varieties had limited influence on cassava rankings. Here, we show for the first time that cassava breeding for intercropping can retain monoculture selection during early stages while adding two representative cowpea testers at the advanced-trial stage. This staged strategy aligns cassava breeding with diversified smallholder systems without creating a separate pipeline.