Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EFFECT OF PULSE INTERCROPPING ON WEED DYNAMICS IN MANGO ORCHARDS ON MANGO EQUIVALENT YIELD AND ECONOMICS

Anand G. Patil, Srinivas N and Mangesh

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at College of Horticulture, Bidar to assess the performance of different pulses as an intercrops in mango orchards on weed infestation and yield in the rain fed areas of Bidar during 2010-11 and 2011-12. The significantly lowest weed infestation was noticed in french bean at 30 and 60 DAS (17.4 and 4.8 No. m-2). However, the canopy of the base crop also affects the growth and yield of intercrops and it is observed that the under canopy intercrops performed poor compared to open field in all the intercropping systems. Fruit yield of mango were found maximum with intercrops french bean (6390 kh ha-1). The significantly higher intercrop yield was noticed in french bean (3021 kg ha-1) followed by field bean (2359 kg ha-1. The lowest intercrop yield was recorded in green gram intercropping system. The significantly higher mango equivalent yield was noticed with french bean intercropping (9122 Rs. ha-1) compared to rest of the treatments. The net returns and BC ratio were recorded significantly higher with frenchbean intercropping than rest of the treatments. The intercropping of french bean was found to be suitable for getting higher productivity and profitability compared to rest of the treatments.