Cotton being a long duration and wide spaced crop having the habit of growing at slower rate in early stages and thus much of vacant interspace remains unutilized. It is indeed worthy to use land fully well by resorting to the introduction of intercrops. It has unique capacity to raise the unit profitability without unduly disturbing the cotton ecosystem. Intercropping of legumes (blackgram) is an important aspect for biological farming systems not only for weed control, but also reducing the leaching of nutrients, pest control and soil erosion. Inclusion of legumes as intercrop in cotton play a multi beneficiary role by providing grains and simultaneously it improves nitrogen status of soil through fixation of atmospheric nitrogen.
Intercropping, Legumes, Weed control, Nutrient dynamics
