Field performance of maize under pulses based intercropping
1V. Prakash, 2S. Manimaran, 3G. Vaidehi, 4S. Malarvannan and 5P. Naveenprasath
1,3 and 4Associate Professor School of Agriculture, Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Selaiyur, Tambaram, Chennai-600073 (India) 2Associate Professor, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University-608002 (India) 5Research Scholar, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University-600073 (India) Email: prakashasha0@gmail.com; Mobile: 8148310890
ABSTRACT
Afield investigation was carried out during Kharif season (June to October, 2019), to find out the suitable combination of intercrops for sustainable maize production. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design. Five treatments viz., T1 - Maize alone, T2 - Maize + Black gram, T3 - Maize + Green gram, T4 - Maize + Cowpea, T5 – Maize + Soybean with four replications were tested. The production efficiencyindices of maize intercropping system viz., Total Maize Equivalent Yield (TMEY), Production efficiency, Economic efficiency, total nutrient uptake and total nutrient efficiency ratio were recorded. Among the different treatments, T2 – Maize + Black gram recorded the higher production efficiency indicesviz.,Total Maize Equivalent Yield (3394 kg ha-1), Production efficiency (32.33 kg ha-1 day-1), Economic efficiency (357.71 Rs. ha-1 day-1), total nutrient uptake (147.65, 28.55 and 167.16kg N, P and K ha-1) and total nutrient efficiency ratio (36.18, 172.25 and 35.49 kgN, P and K kg-1).