Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

PRODUCTION POTENTIAL AND ECONOMICS OF CASTOR (RICINUS COMMUNIS) BASED INTERCROPPING SYSTEM

S.B. Gangawane, M.K. Arvadia, R.D. Shinde and S.B. Bhagat

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at Agronomy Farm, NMCA, NAU, Navsari to study the production potential and economics of castor + vegetable intercropping systems during 2011-2013. Narrow spaced castor (120 cm x 60 cm) increased castor plant height than wider spaced castor (240 cm x120 cm) either at sole stand or in intercropping systems. But wider spacing as well as Intercropping of fenugreek with wider spaced castor resulted into higher number of branches and number of leaves plant-1 over narrow spaced sole castor. Among yield attributing characters, number of spikes plant-1, main spike length, number of capsules on main spike and seed yield plant-1 were increased due to inclusion of short duration vegetable intercrops i.e. onion, garlic, fenugreek and spinach with wider spaced castor. The seed and stalk yields were higher due to closer spacing than wider spacing. Among intercropping systems, castor intercropped with onion recorded higher green biomass yield of onion, castor equivalent yield and net realization. Land equivalent ratio (LER) varied in the order of their performance as fenugreek>spinach>onion>garlic when intercropped with castor.