This field experiment was conducted in order to investigate the effects of soil improvement and upland rice cowpea, intercropping on upland rice yield and activities of root nodule bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi under highland area condition. The split plot experimental designs with 3 replications were used. The main plot treatments consisted of 3 methods of soil management at follow; 1) control without soil management, 2) application of rock phosphate at 9 kg/rai, 3) application of lime at the rate of 400 kg/rai. Three cropping systems, 1) mono cropping of Sew Mae Jun, upland rice cultivar, 2) mono cropping of crawling cowpea line no.55 and intercropping of Sew Mae Jun upland rice and cowpea no.55. In the control plot, without soil management, the soil pH before planting was 5.0-5.8 and had available-P content at 10 mg P/kg. The experimental results indicated that there were no significant effect of methods of soil management, cropping system and interaction between soil management and cropping systems on plant height, no. tillers/hill, weight of the total seed, good seeds and unfilled seeds/panicle and percent unfilled seed of upland rice. But, the those on upland rice seed yield were significant.
The application of rock phosphate and lime resulted in significant increasing of seed yield of upland rice under monocropping compare to the control without soil management. There were no significant different between liming and rock phosphate application for the effects on upland rice seed yield. In the control plot without soil management, upland rice under intercropping with crawling cowpea gave 2 times more seed yield than that of under monocropping. Similar effect was observed also in rock phosphate applied plot and there were no significant different of upland rice yield under intercropping between control and rock phosphate application treatments. When lime was applied, upland rice under intercropping with crawling cowpea gave the lowest seed yield (P<0.01). Significant increasing of the number of pods/rai of crawling cowpea under monocropping system were found also when rock phosphate and lime were applied. These two methods of soil management were not significant different from each other for the effects on the number of pods/rai of crawling cowpea under monocropping system. In contrast, with rock phosphate application, and liming resulted. In significant reduction of number of pods of crawling cowpea in intercropping system, the methods of soil managements, cropping system including the interaction between thosetwo factors did not have significant effects on relative ureide index (RUI), and percent root colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). The RUI at R8 stage crawling cowpea was within the range of 85.28 – 100%, while root colonization by AMF was 56.67 – 100%. Furthermore, there were significant interaction effect between methods of soil management and cropping system on weed dry weight. In the plot without soil management and rock phosphate applied plot, intercropping of crawling cowpea and upland rice resulted in less weed dry weight than that under monocropping of upland rice while such effect was no found in the plot with liming.