Agro-economic feasibility and indices of castor+groundnut intercropping system under irrigated conditions during Rabi season in Telangana

An experiment was carried out for three consecutive years from 2014–15 to 2016–17 at Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Palem, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Telangana, India to study and understand the agro-economic feasibility and various indices of castor+groundnut intercropping system under irrigated conditions during rabi season. There were six treatments viz., sole castor, sole groundnut, castor+groundnut (1:5) with RDF (recommended dose of fertilizer) to both the crops, castor+groundnut (1:7) with RDF to both the crops, castor+groundnut (1:5) with RDF to castor alone and castor+groundnut (1:7) with RDF to castor alone. The results indicated that sole groundnut with significantly higher castor equivalent yield (3960 kg ha⁻¹) gave a higher yield advantage by 12.5 to 25.8% over castor+groundnut intercropping and 102.5% over sole castor. Further, sole groundnut recorded higher water use efficiency (10.25 kg ha⁻¹ mm⁻¹) and net returns mm⁻¹ water used (₹ 243.65 mm⁻¹). The economics also indicated that sole groundnut was profitable in terms of gross (₹ 1,50,465 ha⁻¹) and net returns (₹ 94,150 ha⁻¹). However, higher benefit:cost ratio was observed with sole castor (2.76) followed by sole groundnut (2.67) and castor+groundnut intercropping (1:5) with RDF applied to both crops (2.57). Among various indices, the highest land equivalent ratio (1.13), area time equivalency ratio (1.00) and monetary advantage index (15072) were recorded with castor+groundnut (1:5) where RDF was applied to both the crops.