Effect of planting technique and weed management practices on Ridge-Furrow planting of pigeonpea rice intercropping

An experiment was conducted at All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRP-Dryland Agriculture), Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi for three consecutive years from 2014–15, 2015 16 to 2016–17 to find out the impact of planting method and weed management practices on ridge-furrow planted Pigeonpea + Rice intercropping. Among the different planting methods tested, planting of pigeon pea and rice at the onset of monsoon resulted in maximum yield of both pigeonpea (1839.64 kg/ha), rice (644.84 kg/ha), PEY (2044.48 kg/ha), LER (1.42) and MAI (13309.37). It also performed better in terms of net returns (67158.68/ha), B: C ratio (3.01) and RWUE both in terms of yield (2.25 kg/ha mm) and economic returns (73.72/ha-mm). Out of the various weed management practices, 100% population of both crops + hand weeding resulted in higher yield of pigeonpea (1463.33 kg/ha) with PEY (1656.43 kg/ha), RWUE (1.87 kg/ha-mm and 54.35/ha-mm). However, maximum value of rice yield (613.30 kg/ha), LER (1.11) and MAI (7685.07) were reported in treatment involving 150% population of pigeonpea + 100% population of rice and no weeding while 150% population of pigeonpea + 100% population of rice and hand weeding resulted in highest net returns of 49389.77/ha and B: C ratio of 2.31.