Effect of Legume-Legume Replacement Series of Intercropping System on Growth, Yield and Quality of Chickpea

Abstract

Chickpea is major pulse crop cultivated in India. Area under chickpea cultivation has been increasing day by day. Although area of chickpea is increasing still the productivity per unit area is not increasing.  There are many factor responsible for lack of productivity including crop failure. Therefore, increasing productivity and for avoiding the risk associated with complete crop failure, intercropping is the way forward.  Intercropping of legume in association with non-legumes helps in utilization of nitrogen being fixed by legumes in the current growing season, but also helps in residual build-up of nutrients in soil. Best utilization of nutrients, moisture, space and solar energy can be derived through intercropping system. Intercropping provides an insurance against calamities and helps in the maximization of productivity and profit by efficient utilization of natural resources. Hence, crop intensification is both in space and time dimensions. Selection of compatible genotype and appropriate planting pattern helps in minimizing the inter-specific and intra-specific competition for resources thereby boosting up the productivity of the system as a whole. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted at College Agronomy Farm, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat during two consecutive rabi season of the year 2019-20 and 2020-21. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD), consisting of nine treatment. viz.; T1: sole chickpea, T2: sole linseed, T3: sole fenugreek, T4: (chickpea + linseed 2:1), T5: (chickpea + linseed 3:1), T6: (chickpea + linseed 4:2), T7: (chickpea + fenugreek 2:1), T8: (chickpea + fenugreek 3:1) and T9: (chickpea + fenugreek 4:2) with four replication. Legume intercropping resulted in better growth due to complimentary actions of the both the crop. The total equivalent yield obtained from intercropping far surpasses the yield of the sole crop in unit area.