ntercropping is a sustainable practice to achieve higher production with
the aim to limit external inputs. A field experiment was conducted at the research farm of
the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maragheh, Maragheh, Iran, during 2016
growing seasons with ten treatments to evaluate the yield, analyze the competition and
insect’s assemblages in sunflower (as main plant)/soybean (as companion plant)
intercropping. Treatments included sunflower sole cropping, soybean sole cropping,
replacing intercropping sunflower with soybean (50:50, 34:66, 66:34, 40:60, 60:40,
25:75) and additive intercropping of two plants (100:50 and 100:100%). Results showed
that the highest sunflower grain yield (275 g m-2) was obtained in sunflower monoculture
that was not significantly different with intercropping ratios of 25:75 and 60:40. Also, the
highest and lowest grain yield of soybean was achieved in soybean monoculture (130.1 g
m-2) and ratio of 100:50 (48.5 g m-2), respectively. The highest land equivalent ratio,
monetary advantage index and intercropping advantage value was obtained in
intercropping ratio of 25:75. Moreover, in all cropping patterns the aggressivity (A) and
crowding ratio (CR) values of sunflower were higher than soybean, indicating that
sunflower was the dominant species. Also, the highest density for herbivores was
recorded in soybean monoculture and the families of Thripidae (37.60- 43.87%) and
Cicadellidae (34.01-37.71%) had the most relative density. Furthermore, intercropping of
sunflower with soybean increased pollinators and natural enemies’ abundance compared
with monocultures. Overall, based on the ecological, agronomical and economical indices
intercropping sunflower with soybean with ratio of 25:75 is a feasible alternative method
to achieve similar production with respect to monocropping.