Department of Agronomy, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur-313 001, (Rajasthan), India
*Email of corresponding author: aanandiagro508@gmail.com
Online published on 13 October, 2015.
Afield experiment was conducted at Udaipur, Rajasthan during kharif season 2010 to evaluate fodder based cereal-legume intercropping systems for yield, quality and profitability. Among various sorghum and maize based intercropping systems (1: 1, 2: 1 and 3: 1 row proportion), sorghum intercropped with cowpea in 2 d row ratio was recorded significantly higher total green fodder yield (380 q ha-1), dry matter (1295 g m-2), total nitrogen uptake (119.66 kg ha-1), total phosphorus uptake (35.02 kg ha-1), total crude protein production (747.89 kg ha-1), crude fibre production (3029.18 kg ha−1), ether extract (186.41 kg ha-1) and mineral matter production (1096.17 kg ha-1) as well as net return ( 29285 ha-1)and B: C ratio (2.45) over all other intercropping associations. However, nitrogen free extract (7244.65 kg ha−1) and total digestible nutrient (7823.05 kg ha−1) were recorded numerically higher in maize + clusterbean raised in 2: 1 row ratio and maize + cowpea raised in 2: 1 row ratio, respectively but in respect of leaf area index (LAI) andland equivalent ratio (LER), sorghum + clusterbean under 2: 1 row ratio computed higher LAI (7.10) and LER (1.57) as compared to other treatments.
Economics, Fodder yield, Intercropping system, LER, Nutrient uptake, Quality parameters
